Breaking Point
by Yusei
Summary: He does not wish for you to cry for he stands over your shoulder. But you cannot see him. Your eyes observe those you care for, they hold the strength you believe you do not possess. But their hearts ache in the same way yours does. Revision complete.
1. Fallen

**Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's - Breaking Point**

by Yusei

_**Summary - **__"She looked up at them, wanting to be like them, to be strong like them. Because they were strong; even when their hearts hurt. Slight Yusei x Ruka"  
__He does not wish for you to cry for he stands over your shoulder. But you cannot see him. Your eyes observe those you care for, they hold the strength you believe you do not possess. But their hearts ache in the same way yours does__."_

_**Disclaimer - **__I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's nor any of the characters._

_**A / N - **__Just as small piece exploring to how the Signers would feel after the suffering each has gone through when the battle with the Dark Signers continues to hit individuals close to their hearts. At the time this was conceived, there were rumours that Rua could be sacrificed to an Earthbound God (apparently during Ruka's duel), so I began to wonder how Ruka would react to the death of her brother. This'll be a short thing; just a few chapters and a way to play with the relationship between Yusei and Ruka. Please read and review._

* * *

**Chapter One - Half Fallen**

Rua…

Where was he?

Cold tears slipped down the face of young Ruka, tears that flowed like they would never dry. She had begged for him to realize that he was her superior, even without a Birthmark bestowed upon him by the Crimson Dragon as the Signers convened at the mansion of Rex Godwin, wishing that he would protect her because of the fear that swelled in her heart with the full truth behind the Signers and Dark Signers exposed. He had grown so much in just a few moments, startling her when his tone had fallen into a serious manner after he had insisted that he had nothing to worry about and would feast upon the food left out just before his sudden transformation.

It was a side to him that she had never expected to see, another side to the boy she scolded more than commonly for comments he would make about his dueling ability or his love of chasing dueling idols, the boy that truly made the most out of his short life. A side she liked to see surface in such times, knowing that he would protect her. And now…

That barrier… was gone.

She was seated in the dining room they had been in when Rudger launched his attack, forcing Yusei to stand in order to protect the kids in the orphanage. Even Jack stepped up to protect them as Rudger's Earthbound God was about to drain them of their existences. And Aki-san, she was strong all the time, she bore scars from the past, but refused to allow them to hold her back. Why couldn't she be strong like them? She had to be the weakest Signer ever - there was no chance that the still-missing Fifth Signer could possibly b any weaker than her; no matter who "he" was.

The whirring of an engine belonging to a D-Wheel began to fill the dead air; Ruka glanced at the window where the dim sunlight reflected from the jagged shards of glass angrily rising from the corners of the frame, the majority ruined after the Spider Dark Signer's assault on the orphanage. She wondered briefly if the shards were safe with the young orphans of Satellite living under Martha's care. But it was her choice when the pieces would be replaced, from what the female Signers and those unfamiliar of the place had seen is that Martha's children were well behaved, standing and acting in an orderly manner.

Hearing the purring of the engine die, she approached the empty panels, observing the crimson D-Wheel erected stationary. By the appearance of things, it had done well in its first test run since the devastating end of the duel against the Giant Dark Signer, Kyosuke Kiryu.

When _he_ almost perished.

She watched as Yusei Fudo removed the matching helmet from his head, revealing his pointed black hair, blonde highlights running along a small number. A grim expression had been painted upon his face. Tears filled her eyes. Unable to witness the look of defeat, she turned from the scene as Yusei began to push the D-Wheel towards the orphanage, probably with the intention of leaving it by the front face of the building. She remained alone by the shattered window, shards of glass reflecting the sun's brightness lay on the outside of the wall. There would still be many questions over the capabilities of the salvaged D-Wheel, over whether it would be capable of enduring another Riding Duel after it had come so close to being left behind as junk.

The crunches of the boots meeting the gavel beneath rumbled like thunder was attacking Satellite from beneath. There were no whimpers from frightened children, she was alone. The kids had departed to the upper level of the orphanage, taking Martha and Aki-san with them. The crunches from the outside, slicing the silence into rhythmic segments came to a halt, replaced seconds later by the creeks of wooden floorboards, the door that permitted them entrance into the structure closing behind him.

Rua had been so lively when he first noticed the kids, witnessing that they could be like smaller versions of himself, so energetic and upbeat. And yet, he had lost his spirit.

Because he wasn't a Signer.

But he was desperate to protect everything that he cared about and had to the power to. Even without a crimson Mark emblazoned on his right arm, his courage put him on level with the official Signers. Even without a guarantee that he could shatter the claim that non-Signers were incapable of defeating Dark Signers, he continued to fight on.

To protect his sister.

He was like a part of a Signer, a part of _her_ power. She alone could not bare the Mark and responsibility that came with it. He volunteered to share the burden with her when her fragile body and spirit couldn't handle the pressure alone. It had been him that had dragged her back into the real world when they were merely three years old. When she was lost to the human plain to which she had been born and hidden from, when he cried everyday for her to return and live alongside him.

But what could she do when he was the one in need of help? She was that powerless that she had let him down in the ultimate way. Her eyes fell upon the shaking hands hovering over her pale knees, tears resuming their descent down her face and falling onto the limbs beneath. Just a couple of weeks ago, they had been normal kids living in the Tops. Who knew life could turn around so quickly, so bitterly?

She clenched her hands into tiny fists. Fists that had never dealt a blow to anyone. She was far too gentle for such acts. Instead, she raised them to wipe her dampened eyes of the tears that hung back, the miniature droplets clinging to her eyelashes.

The pounding of Yusei's footfalls returned from the background world beyond her thoughts as he entered the room. She didn't even glance up to meet the sight of him while his azure eyes traced her. He paused when he registered how distressed she still was, rubbing her eyes quickly when the beats ceased. She observed him over her right hand as he watched her solemnly. He could understand her pain. She lowered her hands, staring up at him like a child lost in the streets of Neo-Domino without any clue where to go.

"Yusei…" she exhaled.

"Ruka" Yusei muttered sympathetically. "I searched a large area, but I couldn't find anything about where the Dark Signers went after last night. Nothing we could trail them with. I'm sorry".

"You shouldn't be sorry. You've done nothing wrong, you've nothing to apologise for" the girl whispered, restricting her throat to evade an uncontrollable sob erupting from her throat.

"If what Rudger said last night is true, they may be at the epicentre of Zero Reverse - Old Momentum" Yusei continued. "But we can't confirm it yet, and it's far too dangerous for anyone to go alone. It's not fair to drag you there so suddenly though, you need time to recover".

Ruka lowered her head slightly; again she was holding people back. Just like when they were kids, when Rua would stay inside because his sister wasn't strong enough to play outside with the other children of their age. They would stay together in the apartment at the peak of the Tops. Alone.

Yusei advanced gradually towards her, she didn't respond, waiting to see what it was he intended to do. He lowered himself before her, on one knee; his hands fell onto her shoulder. He was looking at her in the same way he had when the decision to return to Satellite the evening after the Fortune Cup - the daw he became the Duel King - had been reached. Before the Dark Signers had made more than one move.

When Rua was by her side. Yusei's other hand had been on his shoulder, now both fell onto her.

"Ruka, I'll do whatever I can to help get Rua back" he insisted, his voice possessing the same strength and tranquillity as it had that day. The day he promised that the Signers would meet again, reunited by the Birthmarks they shared. "I promise you, Ruka".

"Yusei… I didn't mean to let you down" the girl sobbed, casting her eyes downwards.

Yusei's right eyebrow arched, what Ruka meant was something foreign to him; he had no idea what she believed she had to apologise for. He remained silent, a cue for her to continue. She wiped her dampening eyes with the back of her hands and returned them to the sides of her torso, keeping her eyes down as though she couldn't be deemed worthy to raise them and meet his soft gaze.

"I should have been stronger like the rest of you" she sobbed, tears streaming down her cheeks in an instant as grief overcame her once again. "I wanted Rua to protect me… I was dragging him into a battle that he wasn't supposed to get involved in. I should have protected him by insisting he stay behind like he thought would be best. You, Jack and Aki-san don't rely on someone else to protect and fight for you. I just wish I had been strong enough while Rua was here so that I could stand in front of him in the line of fire. But he took the blows for me".

Her eyes closed, the gentle bright face of a young girl, an aspiring duellist, had vanished beneath the face of emotional anguish, a girl torn apart by the bereavement that had transpired so early in her life. To someone that she should never be separated from.

"But we all have at some point" Yusei interjected. "Aki relied on Divine for a long time after she left home, when she had nowhere else to go. She wanted him to go as far as _think_ for her; you never wanted that much of Rua. Jack and I are the same - we relied on Martha for our very survival in the first years of our lives. We relied on Crow and Kiryu as we fought across Satellite as Team Satisfaction. We even relied upon each other to remain strong after that time came to an end and Kiryu was taken. Even now, I've fallen back on the people here while I deal with the fear of Kiryu's Earthbound God that has spawned in my heart".

"But you've grown to be independent as well" Ruka cried in protest, finally locking her eyes with the adolescent's. "Aki-san wanted to stay by Divine's side, but now that he's been killed, she's moving on. I can't move on from this. Divine was someone that Aki-san loved, but Rua… Rua was a _part_ of me and I was a part of him. Where people usually spend the first nine months of their existence alone in the womb of their mother, we were together. We had that time just the two of us. It was meant to be like that forever, because that's what we came to feel".

"You are a part of each other "Yusei replied calmly. His right hand departed from her tiny shoulder, the arm bearing the Birthmark that had brought them together, an exclusive symbol that they shared. He wiped her cheeks with a couple of his gloved fingers, erasing the rivers of tears. "We're all suffering, even before what happened to Rua. We're not as strong as you think, we're all dealing with our losses, you're not weak because you show it. You're strong because you're not afraid to cry over your brother. But I promise that I'll do whatever it takes to get him back to you. No matter what Godwin or the Dark Signers say".

"But what if we _can't_ get him back? You heard Godwin, not even he knows the fate of those sacrificed" Ruka protested meekly. "What if Rua and your friend Crow are dead?"

"We can't think that way. We have to believe that they're alive somewhere and that we can save them. That they're waiting for us to save them from the Dark Signers" Yusei answered, raising his hand to the top of her head, lying onto her teal hair. His sapphire eyes bore into her amber.

"Yusei… I want to believe you, but I'm scared" Ruka confessed timidly, inwardly feeling abhor directed at herself swelling. She had used the same line when talking with Rua at Godwin's mansion. That she was still scared. "I'm scared that more people are going to get hurt. Or that I can't keep my promise to Ancient Fairy Dragon and protect the Duel Spirit World".

"Ruka, you were so determined when Godwin tried to lock Rua out of the discussion of the Signers because he didn't bear a Mark. You stood up to him in a way that I'm sure you've never done before" Yusei replied before she could maintain her descent into self-loathing and doubt. His hand brushed along her hair, rubbing against her scalp gently. "You were the one that wanted Rua to understand what was happening rather than leaving him in the dark; about the fate of Satellite and Neo-Domino face. Don't lose yourself; you're going to save the Duel Spirit World and Rua".

He shuffled forward, keeping his right knee above the ground as he closed the small space between Ruka and himself, wrapping his arms around her. She sucked in a small breath when the gesture came as a surprise, feeling Yusei's black hair intermingle with her cyan. The view she obtained where his head had been was of the hallway with the door to the orphanage fixed into the front face out of sight, the brick wall around the threshold hindering a wider view. She laid her head against Yusei's shoulder, watching the clouds of gases floating outside the window, blanketing what was left of the island what hadn't been consumed by the thick black fog that erupted from Old Momentum as the Signers enjoyed a peaceful afternoon together.

Memories of Rua flashed through her mind, from her earliest memories to the mature Rua that she had a happenstance of meeting. Seeing his face without a future resumed to eat her up inside. He had always wanted to do whatever he could for her; even in the Fortune Cup, it wasn't about the duelling - until Yusei cam along - it was about sparing her the strain of duelling. Maybe it had been both.

"Yusei" she began, her eyes following the clouds aimlessly. "In the Fortune Cup…"

"Hm?" Yusei sounded, glancing at the back of her head in the corner of his eye.

"When I duelled that man, that psychologist, I went to the Duel Spirit World" Ruka continued. "I was scared when I witnessed the devastation; I don't want that to happen, but it has. The incident at the Arcadia Movement was just like it - I called for Rua to help me. To bring me back like he did before. It was his belief that reminded me of what I was losing by staying with the Duel Spirits. That's why it was his voice that reached through to me both times. What happens if I travel there again without him? What if I can't get back?"

"Ruka, you will return, no matter what" Yusei answered, feeling her frail body beginning to tremble. His arms tightened around her.

'_Still… I couldn't protect him. I was unable to do anything for him __**again**__. Why couldn't I be his barrier like at the Arcadia Movement when we found Aki-san?'_ the girl asked herself mutely _'Why can I do nothing for him? The only time I've been any use to him was getting him in Godwin's home to hear what he had to say about Signers and the battle we faced – and it dampened his feelings as an outsider to this war'._

Beyond the embracing pair, the hallway that greeted those passing through the front door flickered as a shadow passed between the panels of light upon the wall opposite the entrance. Aki Izayoi, the formerly isolated Psychic Duellist of the Arcadia Movement had returned to the lower level of the hostel following her sensing of Yusei's D-Wheel returning to the site of parentless children's broken youthful days. The whirring of the familiar engine had given her a reason to slip from the tiny fingers of innocent children, those that had suffered much worse than her in their histories, with a heartfelt promise to return once she had confirmed that Yusei was the one that had arrived. They were youngsters without blood relatives, just as she believed herself to be, but Martha had extended a hand to them, uniting them under her roof with the hope that perhaps those that had once lived under the same tiles could bring about a brighter future. One where they could live in peace.

Aki's auburn eyes met the sight of Yusei's back with Ruka's head tucked over his right shoulder, her eyes aimed in the direction of the gentle sky above, possibly searching for his absent brother. The woman paused and watched the pair for a moment – like Ruka, she too had lost someone dear to her in recent times, witnessing Divine plunge to what she was left to assume was his demise. Left behind in a bitter world. She had been left confused by her duel with Yusei, unable to understand how she felt about the people surrounding her. The shock of losing someone as close as Divine and then learning that his affections towards her were false, merely covers for a plot using her and her abilities… it was a lot to take in through one sitting.

She proceeded towards the pair, ignoring her underlying conflicts and indecisiveness. She had moved forward since Divine left, now she would have to act like the rock Yusei had been to guide Ruka through the process she had endured suddenly while facing the new King of Neo-Domino, the man whose words began to crack the mask worn over her face at the Fortune Cup, drawing tears from her inner turmoil as she pleaded for help at the mercy of the spiteful words that flooded to the field from the spectators that had yelled at her because of her uncontrollable powers. She had experienced such loneliness – that day a mere reflection of years – years spanning a decade, approximately to the time which the youngest Signer would have been born. But she had never lost someone so close to her in those years, apart from her Mama and Papa.

Yet they had returned to her, standing somewhere in Neo-Domino with the man's professional life on hold while they prayed for the girl they once abused accidentally, waiting anxiously for her return. To see that same smile again.

Aki's train of thought was brought to a screeching halt when another D-Wheel engine purred against the silent air, there was only one remaining person that it could be. The young woman approached the door, watching as Jack's Wheel of Fortune skidded to a halt, a scorn of bitter frustration painted across his face. As far as she was aware – she, Yusei and Ruka – he was the only living Signer left to suffer a loss. The belief couldn't have been further from reality. The blonde former-King began to guide his silent D-Wheel towards the front face of the building, not giving Aki even a passing lance. She didn't wait for him to notice her presence at the doorway, retreating inside the threshold and into the shadows cast across the solemn orphanage. Martha had come so close to losing her soul to the Spider Earthbound God, saved only by Ushio: the last person anyone would have expected to rescue a Satellite in distress. The once persistent Security officer had come a long way since the days of chasing Yusei for a shot at revenge.

Rally, however, had not been so fortunate. The young boy who had admired Yusei for as long as they had known each other had been sacrificed to spare Yusei the grim fate, forced to replace Rudger as a pawn without power once the Tail Signer gained the upper hand in the duel. The tactics disgusted the two that had known Rally for a few years, forced outside any control of the duel as Rally spun a strategy that would eliminate himself for Yusei's sake and, as he claimed, the sake of Satellite. The boy then simply crumbled to dust, blown away, in Yusei's arms.

Aki redirected her attention back to Yusei and Ruka, watching as Yusei's hand rose and descended, rubbing Ruka's back in an attempt to comfort the distressed girl, her head buried in the nape of his neck. She had never been away from her brother, now separated by forces far beyond her control, unsure if she could ever be reunited with him. The boy she saw as a half of her. The memory of Divine holding her flooded back into Aki, she merely shook her head to clear her mind of the memories. Divine was gone, she couldn't fall back. She couldn't undo everything that Yusei had said and done for her sake. Now of all times, it was essential that she continued to progress, to move towards the future. But it still hurt. Terribly.

Rather than dwelling in the past of scars and losses, she moved into the room, catching the young girl's golden eyes. The child stared at her, yet said nothing, she wanted Yusei to comfort her, it reminded her of Rua. Aki strode forward nonetheless, towards them; the sound of her gentle footsteps awoke Yusei from his world of thoughts. His back straightening, neck twists for his soft eyes to meet the sight of the scorned woman behind him.

"Aki" he exhaled gently.

"Yusei, Martha asked me to find you" Aki reported. "I think she wants to speak with you".

"I see" Yusei responded dully, well aware that he would have to leave Ruka to her thoughts once again, those that battered her, trying to drag her beneath the rough surface and drown her into perpetual depression. Yusei's eyes moved to the fraction of the delicate child positioned in the corner of his view, and then back to the magenta-haired woman. "Aki… could you… watch Ruka please? I'm hoping she'll speak to someone soon. She seems pretty close to you, I think she looks up to you in the same way Rua… did".

"Alright" Aki answered, lowering her head to execute half a nod.

Yusei smiled briefly before unwrapping his arms and releasing Ruka. The girl stared at him with the tearful and frightened eyes of a lost child, someone misplaced and seeking the comfort of the one person they felt closest to. But Yusei's hand fell by his sides, they didn't rise to capture her in his protective embrace again, he just knelt before her.

"Y- Yusei…" she whispered meekly. "Where are you-?"

"I've just got to see Martha for a few minutes. I'll be back soon, until then, Aki will be with you" Yusei answered, forcing her question to a standstill before its completion. "I won't be gone long, I promise".

"O- okay" the girl muttered sorrowfully.

Before her eyes, he rose, towering over her as usual. The dark-haired man turned to Aki, giving her a silent nod as the only signal that the responsibility of caring for Ruka had been handed to her. Without any words of comfort, he strode away, through the threshold and leaving the two girls alone. His rhythmic footsteps came to a halt when Jack entered the building through the front door.

"Jack…" the Tail Signer exhaled.

"Yusei…" Jack responded bluntly. "When did you get back?"

"Not long ago… I couldn't find anything" Yusei sighed with a heavy heart, his eyes falling to the floor. "I should have been able to protect him. I couldn't even defend this place on my own, I was bait to lure those boys in that simply wanted to help and more lives could have been lost. And then…"

"Don't go down that road again" Jack growled. The path of blame and self-hatred had been one that two of the Signers had already strolled, with a third on the way, but for Yusei to return was something Jack Atlus refused to allow. Especially when the children, including Rua and Ruka, looked up to him as a hero, an idol. Someone they wanted to follow who hadn't betrayed his friends

"I won't" Yusei responded without friction. "But I need to do more. I let both Kiryu and Crow down; even Rua. I can't let Ruka down as well, I'll do whatever it takes to help her and grant her wish to get her brother back.

"You're not the only one who could have helped them" Jack scoffed, turning his head swiftly and taking his eyes from Yusei. Both regret and ire rose inside of him, bitter memories of the past he had thrown away once continued to haunt him, interfering with the life he had worked for in Neo-Domino. He had returned to the place where everything began for him, somewhere he had turned his back on, with ultimately nothing to show for it. "And don't think you're the only one hurt by what's happened to Kiryu and Crow".

Together the pair remained frozen in the hallway, Yusei's eyes rising to view Jack's face, the blonde's eyes that gazed out of the empty frames of the window behind him; towards the sky.

"I should see what Martha wants. Aki said that she wanted to see me" Yusei finally spoke, the tense silence coming to an end while his eyes fell again.

Jack didn't respond to the claim, instead, he merely watched Yusei pass by in the corner of his eye. While a spark had been relit in his fighting spirit, he was far from the duellist that had taken his title as King in the Fortune Cup, that person seemed distant. The constant blows had battered his body and soul, as had the recent events of several, including each of the other Signers.

Aki was a clear example; right from the first time Jack had seen her conscious following her disappearance after the Fortune Cup, she had been acting like a completely different person. She wasn't the same ruthless and uncaring woman she had been then. Even when she lashed out and used her powers to harm people, there had been the motivation of loneliness, of wanting to be found. Not the pure rage she had displayed at the tournament. She was just another lost child waiting for someone to open their arms and welcome her back to the real world, to tell her they would protect her from the harshness of reality.

Everyone was slowly changing from who they had been; the Dark Signers were inflicting more than just physical wounds upon them – this battle was one that struck them emotionally, even psychologically. A difficult battle with difficult enemies: people of the past, no longer of the living world returning from their ends purely for revenge. And according to the twins as well as Jin Himuro and Yanagi Tenzen; Misty Lola was included in this list of individuals. But that was all they knew: that Misty Lola and Kyosuke Kiryu were among them, as well as the leader who had revealed to Yusei that he was Rex Godwin's elder brother. They had witnessed these Earthbound Gods and their terrible powers, but their knowledge was still minimal, why had two appeared at the Arcadia Movement battle? Who else could have been in the building?

The memory of the sole surviving tower of the region stung, cutting open his own wounds; the place where he had lost someone of his own. His gloved hand dove beneath the surface of his Riding Suit, removing the glasses that had been left as a remnant of that girl. One of the lenses had been damaged, drawing his thoughts back to her. She had vanished that night; the girl that had given him help and shelter when the media were hounding him relentlessly for any opportunity to discuss the leaked matter that he was indeed Satellite-born.

Carly Nagisa…

Where was she?

Everyone was suffering, everyone was losing someone close. Jack's empty hand clenched itself into a tight fist, Godwin had previously spoken of the Fifth Signer; if he had been "awakened a long time ago" as Godwin claimed, then why wouldn't he show before things became desperate? Didn't now count? They couldn't wait any longer; he was hiding somewhere, hiding when they needed him. If now didn't count, he dared to think about how bad things would need to be to summon the final Signer and unleash the Crimson Dragon. Who was this man?

His violet eyes tapered furiously, time was running out, it wouldn't be long before another tragedy would befall someone in Satellite, someone in Neo-Domino. It wouldn't be long before someone else close would vanish from the world and join the countless sacrifices, tearing apart more lives.

* * *

Yusei pushed the door open to the room where Martha had earlier announced she would take the children to keep them calm after the harrowing ordeal they had been through; almost losing their souls and lives to the terrifying Earthbound God that towered over the streets of Satellite and threatened to devour them once they realised they had entered a war and not a game. The dark skinned woman smiled as his eyes met her; one of the first generation of orphans she raised from infancy stood as a healthy young adult, someone bearing responsibilities handed to him as she taught him to. Only on a much larger scale than she could have ever imagined. Yusei proceeded inside, allowing the door behind to close with a mournful creak. For now, they were alone.

"Martha…" he spoke. "Aki said that you wanted to talk".

"Yusei, I want to check how you're doing" Martha responded, wagging a sole finger. "You may have convinced Dr Schmidt that you're well enough to walk about prematurely rather than rest, but I'm not convinced by it. Aki-chan spoke of a duel you had when you went over to Neo-Domino with the senator. According to her, she battered you quite a bit like she did in that tournament. If that's true, then I want to see if there's been any damage to the wound you sustained after your duel with Kiryu".

"Martha, if anything had gone wrong, I would have noticed back in Neo-Domino" Yusei protested apprehensively.

"You'll at least need some clean bandages. It might not hurt, but it's still there" Martha continued, speaking as though she hadn't heard a word he had uttered. "It's your battle scar until this matter is dealt with. Besides, I want to talk to you about the girl".

"Aki?" Yusei inquired, his head rising slightly.

"No, no. The little one" Martha chuckled, waving her hand dismissively. The last time they had discussed Aki, the matter shifted towards the possibility that Yusei and Aki were a couple, much to the young man's discomfort who was put on the spot to deny it all.

"Ruka…" Yusei sighed.

"She's hurt, Yusei" the woman stated, her tone returned to its serious level to emphasise the gravity of the predicament surrounding the youngster. "She needs you, just like she needs Jack and Aki-chan to support her. You were hurt when you learned Kiryu was a Dark Signer and that he had died. Hurt _and_ scared".

Yusei's eyes descended to the floorboards, she was right. After all, she had seen it all first-hand in the wake of the devastating duel that had almost stripped him of his life and battered his D-Wheel to the brink of disrepair.

And he was more responsible than anyone. What if he had never discovered Kiryu towering over the corpse of the Security officer he had attacked? What if he hadn't failed in protecting him from the clutches of the authorities? That had been Kiryu's motivation to come back: to get _him_. Eventually, he could turn to hunting Jack and Crow… one his hands were drenched in Yusei's blood.

"You see?" Martha added when there was no reply outside of his expression, his fists shaking by his sides from the emotional build-up trapped inside of his body. "She's feeling the same way. Her brother may not become a Dark Signer like Kiryu did, but he's suffered too. He's been sacrificed to this battle, just like Crow".

"Rua would never dream of coming back as a Dark Signer" Yusei finally spoke. "Even if Ruka wasn't a Signer, he would never harm anyone, he'd rather stay dead. He despises the Dark Signers just as the rest of us do because of their means of getting revenge… but Ruka being a Signer gives him even more incentive to avoid such a fate".

"He's a brave boy, I'll say that" Martha articulated softly, watching Yusei as his expression alternated between sorrow and anger over the loss of the young optimistic boy. An innocent who stood as a shield for his sister, to protect her when she became a vulnerable target, risking his very life for the one he cared most about. "He isn't even a Signer, but he was fighting for his sister. He's an example to follow. He was just defending someone else; he didn't have to get himself involved, but he did because he knew what was more important to him".

"And I should do the same. Because I almost let you down" Yusei responded, continuing where he could only guess Martha was heading, his tone reflecting the feelings of defeat that swelled inside of his bruised body.

"Yusei, you didn't give up completely when Kiryu beat you and Aki-chan didn't give up completely when she was beaten. Ruka and Jack are going to need your support if they're to survive the brutality of this madness" Martha spoke in a strong, convincing tone. Her expression softened once those words departed from her mouth, continuing in a much more gentle voice. "Now let's see how your battle scar is doing, maybe we can think of a way to drag Ruka out of her shell".

Yusei nodded, his brow creasing slightly to edge him closer to the default stern expression he wore. Without further delay, he stepped forward, ready to take up Martha's offer, ready to do what he could and see just what kind of mark had been left on his body as a constant reminder of the war and its harsh realities. Images of Rudger and Kiryu flashed in his mind. Memories of Crow and Rua.

He had lost himself for too long, people were suffering though he may only be one of five special individuals that could do anything to stand in the way of the Dark Signers and their goal; he knew full-well that he had to hold his own corner up. He wouldn't let anyone else down, he wouldn't let the past cloud his judgement. He would no longer let anyone down.


	2. Incapacitated

**Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's - Breaking Point**

by Yusei

_**Summary - **__"She looked up at them, wanting to be like them, to be strong like them. Because they were strong; even when their hearts hurt. Slight Yusei x Ruka"  
__He does not wish for you to cry for he stands over your shoulder. But you cannot see him. Your eyes observe those you care for, they hold the strength you believe you do not possess. But their hearts ache in the same way yours does__."_

_**Disclaimer - **__I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's nor any of the characters._

_**A / N - **__Forgive me for having not updating this in such a long time. Decided to make this fic just five chapters by playing with the titles for each one. The final chapter all depends on Episode 57 tomorrow and if something major happens, then a sixth chapter may be added on. The fact that Martha is about comes from the fact that the fic was started before it was revealed what happened to her during Rudger and Yusei's first duel. Please read and review._

* * *

**Chapter Two - Half Incapacitated**

Ruka gazed out of the empty frame, frozen by sorrow and grief, her eyes focused on the skies far beyond the shards still fixed into the corners of the frames, gleaming threateningly. Behind the young girl, Aki loyally remained. She would stay by the girl to fulfil the request Yusei had asked of her. Not a sound had risen since the young men had parted, Jack had obviously strolled somewhere else in order to escape socialising with his allies.

"Aki-san?"

The magenta-haired woman turned to the child in front of her; she didn't look back, she didn't indicate she had spoken. The woman hesitated before her mouth opened, perhaps her mind had played tricks on her, and she had said nothing.

"Ruka? Did you say something?"

"Mm-hm" the girl sounded, her head bouncing lightly at the same time.

"What is it?"

"The Fifth Signer…"

That topic. That topic in which they all longed for answers; the Signer bearing the final Birthmark of the Crimson Dragon – the elusive Head. No-one knew his identity, but he had been here. At the Fortune Cup, he had been the final trigger in summoning the almighty beast that appeared before the world, the divine being hovering over Red Demon's, Stardust and the two D-Wheels that looked like mere toys beneath its glorious form. He hadn't shown, but Godwin had insisted that 'he' would appear, ad bring that divine dragon with him once again.

Those Marks that she had once cursed, that had once torn her family and her life apart. That had brought them together and brought hope to her life.

"Do you think-" the child continued on. "-That he's as brave as Yusei and Jack and you?"

"Huh?" Aki sounded, locking her eyes onto the girl once again.

Where was _this_ coming from? Maybe it was just Ruka trying to piece an image of the elusive mystery Signer, trying to come to terms with a future without her brother standing by her side, smiling and waving his arms in a ridiculous fashion. The boy who brought a fresh aura into this fight, the boy who leapt wildly declaring that he would be as cool as Jack despite the blonde's recent dethroning. The boy who had learned he wasn't the Fifth Signer, yet promise to stand by his sister's side and protect her. That promise… which had led to his demise.

"You're just as brave, if not more. You're so young, yet you wandered into this battle along us as though you've had as many years experience with your Birthmark as Jack or I" she answered after a few moments of silence. If she could life Ruka's spirit, then maybe – just maybe - she could reawakened her fighting spirit, she could remind the girl about revenge, to fight back in the memory of her brother. They had no idea about the fate of those deceased in the war; Yusei had voiced his feelings that people could be saved if each of the Earthbound Gods was eliminated, freeing them from their blackened prison. Maybe they could rescue Rua that way.

"Brave? I've been using Rua as a shield to defend me" the young voice cried, louder and more desperate. She hated herself, she was shouting at herself. "I even ran away from that duel, from the Dark Signer that I had chosen to fight. That man held Ancient Fairy Dragon in his deck and I was supposed to fight for her sake, instead, I ran away to hide in that her world with Torunka and Regulus".

"You didn't run. You were helping that dragon, she makes you a Signer. You were fulfilling your promise" Aki protested softly, stepping towards the girl. "You were doing just as much in that world as you could have this. Yusei told me the entire thing – Rua was talking about how he was going to protect you, so that you wouldn't have to fight. Because he knew you were doing something just as important. He was doing it for you; not because he felt he had do, but because he _wanted_ to. If he couldn't be a Signer, he wanted to at least help in whatever way he could.

"Aki-san…" Ruka muttered, lancing over her shoulder at the woman in the corner of her eye, enough for it to seem to the former witch that she hadn't turned her head. "When you duelled Yusei, you were talking about Divine. He died, didn't he?"

She said nothing. She had discovered the truth, what Divine had been doing behind doors closed even between himself and her. Regardless, she still harboured feelings for him; she still felt gratitude and friendship towards the man that had helped her from the streets. Lately, she had been reassessing those feelings; did she love him? The wounds were raw and unprotected; she had been able to turn around and face the demons of her past, overcome the lies she told herself. But there was still the pain that it all happened. And even though Divine hadn't helped her progress beyond the strength of her powers, it still hurt that he wasn't around to comfort her.

"Yes… he's dead. He must have been fighting another Dark Signer" she sounded, pain encased each word. She had yet to truly digest the truth and accept it to move on and resent Divine.

"Another Dark Signer? It must be the on that Jack chose. We don't know his ties to the Hummingbird, but he doesn't seem to show any interest in the Spider, that guy's after Yusei. But we don't even know _their_ relation" Ruka whispered. "As for Kiryu-san… he's after Yusei too, he doesn't seem interested in taking on Jack".

Silence returned to pass through the room like a cold breeze. Ruka had been with Saiga, Mikage and Rua on the roof of a building at the time Rudger confessed his identity and links to Yusei. She had no idea that he was Godwin's elder brother or that he was the assistant to Yusei's father in MIDS. She would learn in time… or she could be informed now. But what good would that do?

"These Birthmarks… they're brought us together" the girl continued, looking down at her right arm raised in front of her. "But they're brought her pain…"

Aki's eyes shot back to the girl, wider than before; this was definitely not Ruka. That was _her_ approach to the Birthmark – that they were a curse and brought nothing but despair. Ruka was right behind Yusei in preaching how good they were. Aki could feel a chill creep down her spine, it was as though they had switched places; that she would be the one to cheer Yusei and Jack on while Ruka watched on in silence, having los the voice to cheer, to call encouragement. Having lost her heart.

Aki stepped forward hesitantly, she had to figure out something that would drag the girl's heart back from the deep pit it had fallen into; she refused to let the young Signer deviate and become what she had been – resentful of the sinister and unjust world around them. If the Arcadia Movement was still about, would she have joined in her blind despair, guided by Divine's desire to manipulate her powers?

She shook her head; the Arcadia Movement was a thing of the past, Divine with it. She had moved on and she wouldn't go back, she wouldn't let him wind her around his finger from beyond the grave. Not anymore. She lifted a hand and laid it onto the girl's shoulders, feeling the hairs of the cyan pigtail brush against her hand coldly. Ruka glanced up at her, curiosity regarding what the older girl was doing evident in her features, but at the same time, there was the same cold aura that had been in those eyes during her duel in the Fortune Cup. When she wasn't in the human world.

"Ruka" the magenta-haired uttered. "I've been hurt before, everyone has. We're here for you… _I'm_ here for you too. You can tell me whatever you need to. I don't want you to lock up everything and feel the burden on your heart grow too much like mine did".

"Aki-san" Ruka exhaled. For the first time since the demise of her brother, she began to look as though she hadn't been drained of everything in her. She looked like she was almost smiling. "Thank you".

* * *

Yusei sat patiently, watching Martha's arms circle over his head while pressing bandages over his healing scar in the process of clotting. He had always been afraid that Kiryu was going to do whatever he could to get revenge after Team Satisfaction broke down, what he had promise; but to become a Dark Signer and swear revenge in blind rage? To hate him that much to want him dead? It tore his heart apart, though he'd never admit it.

And it wasn't just Kiryu anymore – he had almost lost Martha whilst duelling against Rudger. Rally, on the other hand, hadn't been so lucky. He had been set in Rudger's place somehow when victory was in sight; he sacrificed himself for what he called 'Satellite's hope. What would he tell the others if they were released from the Earthbound Gods when the fight ended? Would they hate him for costing another innocent his life? Yusei brushed his hand against his eye; they had been awake all night in hunting for the remaining Dark Signers following Ruka's victory over Demak, topping the Monkey Earthbound God that had snatched her brother away.

They knew the identities of three cloaked figures, but what of the fourth? The one that Jack had chosen to fight, did he know who it was? All they could determine was that the Hummingbird was a girl; she had the figure and dressed with her stomach and slender legs exposed; a way only a woman would dress. Martha's arm hit the side of his head, knocking him from his thoughts, he looked up at her.

"Sorry" she chuckled lightly, resuming the cycle.

"Martha… are you keeping a strong front up for Takuya and the others?" he inquired, turning his head away before her eye could catch his.

"What do you mean?" the woman asked, tilting slightly to her left. She just wanted to hear his words, just to see if he had slipped into the same pessimistic boy she had seen not long ago, paralysed by fear, guilt and doubt.

"You were almost killed out there. Rally's dead and Crow's disappeared. We've got Dark Signers threatening to swallow every person in both Satellite and Neo-Domino in their power" the raven-haired man listed, his eyes fixed aimlessly upon the floorboards beneath his feet, tracing the edges of wooden wall. "They're after Jack, Aki, Ruka and me; you've seen what losing Rua has done to Ruka. I'm worried about her. And I'm worried about all of you too. You shouldn't be involved in all this, you shouldn't get too close".

"Yusei" Martha spoke following seconds of silence. She pulled on the bandage in her hand, having wrapped enough layers over the wound for Yusei to avoid feeling it burning in anguish until he was to land himself in trouble with another Dark Signer. She could guarantee that wasn't far off. "Someone has to be strong in these times. You and Jack need to be there for Ruka-chan; prove to her that even if you lose someone close, you can still live".

"Rally was a good friend, but he wasn't a brother to me, not by blood at least" Yusei sighed. "Rua and Ruka were twins, she feels like she's lost half of her power. Half of _herself_ even".

"But you said that Spider Dark Signer claimed to be an assistant of your father's right? Then you've lost a part of yourself there too" Martha protested. "You mother and father are in you; if you've lost your father through this man, then haven't you suffered the same and lost a part of yourself to him? Because he was your father, does that mean you lost half of yourself? Your mother was killed in that blast, does that mean you've lost yourself completely?"

Yusei didn't answer; but rather focused on what the woman was saying to him; he was an only child, he had no-one else, Martha was the closest thing to a mother he had ever known. Ruka had been alone with Rua for many days in the Tops where the three of them had been brought into the world; just as he was ably to live without blood relatives, she could still sit in the rooms like Rua had gone off with Tenpei in search of a new urban legend to replace the hunt for the Black Rose Witch. She had often spoken about how wild and loud the boy had been; qualities she would miss, qualities she would admit she likes; those that made them opposites.

"Besides, hasn't she gained something?"

"Hm?"

"Her dragon. She couldn't summon it before, and now she has the card and another on top of that" the middle-aged woman elucidated, reminding the drifting adolescent of her point. "Doesn't she hold Rua-kun's card as well.

Yusei nodded, it was something she had done in order to keep him close by, guiltily removing the card from his trembling fingers. Power Tool Dragon had been the card that led Rua to believe he was the mission Fifth Signer, only disproven when Godwin appeared before them and denied such acclaim; he knew who the Fifth was. Was he holding them back? Why wasn't he revealing the identity of the final member of the exclusive group?

"Then he's not dead, he's still with her. She gained his spirit and two other cards" Martha resumed, tucking the roll of bandages into a small medical kit that Dr Schmidt had compiled. "And Aki-chan has rebuilt a bond with her parents after that man who was looking after her died. Perhaps in the wake of Rally's passing, _you_ may gain something you could never grasp. And the same goes for Jack; he may not have lost anything, but he may still find something still".

Yusei nodded again, smiling lightly at the woman over his shoulder. What she speaking were words of truth.

She handed him his black shirt and jacket having finished her self-appointed task of changing the bandages over his wound, he would push himself constantly and she couldn't risk him pulling it open again He had been out of bed long before she wanted him to talk, no matter what she or anyone else would say, he didn't listen.

Stubborn boy.

"I'll start work on something for you all to eat. You've been up all night, you could do with a rest" she offered with a motherly smile. "I'm glad you called everyone back here, Yusei".

"The Dark Signer's aren't going to wait for us to go to them forever, but we're safe here for now" Yusei murmured. "But after a while, they'll come here. Just like Rudger did, they know where we are and they'll probably want revenge for Ruka beating one of them. You and the children will be at risk, I can't have that".

"Yusei, I'm telling you now; you've all got to rest a while. I won't have you rushing out after the Dark Signers to fall asleep partway through the duel" Martha argued, waving a finger in front of him. "Until a time when we're in any kind of danger, we're staying here and doing whatever we can to help".

"I don't have a hope in arguing with you, do I?" Yusei asked with a slight smile.

"Not really, you know that" Martha chortled heartily.

Yusei nodded, standing as his arms slipped through the holes in his black shirt. Martha opened the door at the moment his head passed through and stretching it over his bare torso. The raven-haired adolescent didn't add his jacket to the clothes he wore, but threw it over his shoulder and followed the woman out of the room, standing opposite her in the hallway as he shut the door behind him.

"I'll check on Aki and Ruka. I know they're both bearing scars and I don't want to push Aki to look past her pain to help Ruka if it only upsets her as well" he suggested.

"You do that, I'll make something that will boost your strength ahead of the remaining duels" Martha stated, smiling brightly at the young man taken under her wing after his transfer from the distant city.

Yusei turned and walked to her right. Martha remained still as she watched; his boots tapped the floorboards softly. She shook her head at his constant quiet, almost withdrawn, aura. She had always had a buried feeling that he could be special after she learned of his origin; born in the Tops, parents killed in Zero Reverse, abandoned in the ruins of the accident until she found him. But he wasn't the only special one – there was Jack. The man who had been the Duel King in Neo-Domino for two years, secretly smuggled in beneath the radar of Security.

They were the two special boys had raised from their earliest years; seeing them leave with Crow and Kiryu brought tears to her eyes. She loved all the children she had cared for dearly, each had been scarred by the incident and forced to adjust to a cruel world that no longer cared about them. She wished another could rise like a phoenix from the ashes of their broken past, just as Yusei and Jack had, but they had accepted their lives without mysterious secrets. But she would never compare them to the duo, how could someone compare a normal human to a Signer? She turned her back on the way Yusei had strolled and began to move herself. Was the comparison between them something that Rua and Ruka focused on? Did the boy feel inferior to his sister because he wanted to have the power to protect those he cared about?

* * *

Jack stretched as he laid out on the tattered roof, staring at the sky; there was nothing more for him to do. The shack was a far cry from Godwin's luxurious mansion on its own island, but this felt more like home. This was what he did when he wanted to get away from people and have time to clear his head; it always had been. He would continue to distance himself from those he didn't need to stand behind at the moment, give them their own space as well. Everyone needed time to come to terms with what they had lost. He reached into his coat, pulling out those fractured spectacles again. Those shimmering glasses now cracked that the girl wore. Carly…

He gave a sigh and laid them out of sight again, tucking them into his coat for his eyes only. Nobody needed to know his private business; she intruded, but she made him feel like a person as she did so. So why did she have to die? Why was death not enough, but for fate to throw her into the blackened attire of a Dark Signer? Her emotions had been toyed enough with, hadn't they? Was she swearing revenge on him for something when she became the enemy?

The words that she spoke denied that; calling him her 'love', but if she cared for him, why did an Earthbound God infect her soul? Everyone was facing something causing them pain' everyone seemed to be suffering at the hands of the Dark Signers. Aki had lost Divine, Ruka had lost Rua, Yusei had lost Rally and his father. And together, they had lost Kiryu and, it seemed, Crow. Alone, he lost Carly.

The reporter with such a fresh attitude, the girl who took him in to hide from the swarm of reporters and cameras tearing the city apart to find him after his duel with Yusei and the dethroning that followed. Then the truth leaking out that he was from Satellite. That blonde bitch Carly had spoken with at the amusement part had been the one to expose the secret. All Carly tried to do was protect him and help him in whatever way she could.

He hadn't even known that that very reason had been the cause of Carly's infiltration of the Arcadia Movement – that colleague of hers had been the unintentional trigger to the chain of events that led to the girl's tragic demise. But he _had_ been with her since that time; he had parted from her since that time. If he had been with her, she wouldn't be dead. She wouldn't be the Dark Signer infected with the Hummingbird, she wouldn't be condemned to fight the man she loved. To face the reality that one of them would be dead in the next day or so. That reality hurt.

But he was the former King, he was a man; he couldn't to cry and mope over the new cards fate had dealt him, equally as poor as each previous set. He had been an orphan in Satellite, climbing the ladder to Neo-Domino by forsaking everything he had held and treasured. Now he had come full-circle – the city was aware of his secret, he sat atop the orphanage in which he grew up, he was facing another difficult choice.

He was a man – he wasn't allowed to cry.

The sound of another climbing the ladder laid against the edge of the building filled his ears, the wooden creaks of the old ladder. Mikage appeared up the steps when they had appeared at Godwin's grand manor. She had obviously come to check on him again. His eyes locked onto the tops of the wooden arms rested against the edges of the plates covering the building, only to see Aki appear in Mikage's place.

"Jack…" she murmured, sounding her shock at finding someone else on the roof.

"Izayoi" he sounded, the expression of surprise wasn't mutual.

"I was wondering where you had gotten to, guess I've got my answer" she stated, climbing over the edge and onto the roof.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, violet eyes locking onto her.

"I thought about coming up here to think for a while, just to clear my head after everything that's happened. It seems we shared the idea" she answered, glancing over her shoulder at the edge of the slates. "I'll leave if you'd rather be alone".

"No" Jack replied quickly, as though to cut her off from speaking further. "You may as well stay; I can't force you off if you want to be here".

"Thank you" the magenta-haired girl replied with a smiled. The smile he was beginning to find occurring frequently on her once tearful face.

Aki laid herself down close to him, staring up at the sky; clouds drifting over the vast sea of blue, sunlight pouring through the small gaps like rays shining down on something scared. The tranquil scene was shrouded by the pollution lingering over the ruined isle, blocking any true beauty. Satellite had been spoken of as a place where criminals thrived, a scary place where crime happened everywhere. No-one could be safe in a place like that. A place like Hell on Earth.

Hell couldn't have bred men like Yusei and Jack though. Satellite wasn't the threat that tales and rumours spoke of. It was simply another way for the city to distance itself from something less proud.

Lies. It was all lies.

* * *

Ruka shifted her eyes when she heard the sound of footsteps, noting Yusei making his way through the hallway towards her. Aki had left moments beforehand, she had to put on a smile to guide the young woman onwards, insisting she was fine. She didn't want Aki to think she was failing in comforting her, especially having been in a place where she had lost someone close – the someone that she felt closest to in the world, no less – in recent days herself. Aki had been subjected to far too much to be told she was failing at making someone else feel better after all the years she had lacked the comfort she needed.

The dark-haired adolescent towered over her as he came to a halt, his shadow laid over her tiny frame. She gazed up at him like a lost child seeking shelter in a stranger, in the middle of nowhere on a cold and rainy night, no-one else around to share her pain with. Yusei smiled comfortingly and lowered himself onto a single knee, placing his right hand on her shoulder.

"Ruka… are you feeling any better?" he asked softly.

Ruka nodded her head hollowly, she hated lying, but she didn't want to be a burden on his already tattered soul. She had seen Yusei fall apart when Rally sacrificed himself to destroy Uru, how he crumbled into nothing in Yusei's arms. She had heard him scream in a way she had never heard before, screaming the name of someone he cared about. Screaming out of pain burning in his heart, not from an attack that had hit him physically. There was a lot to this person that she didn't know of, but there was so much she had learned and so much she had seen.

"I was talking to Martha" he spoke in the same gentle voice. "She was talking about how Ruka put himself in front of you as a shield for you to inherit what you lost. Rua wouldn't have jumped in head-first without knowing there was a way to protect you. You hold Ancient Fairy Dragon and Regulus; you hold Power Tool Dragon. He must have known that in the chance he couldn't live to see the end of the duel, that you would be there to catch him; that you would be there to hold onto Power Tool until you two could meet again. I'm certain that we can get him back and give him his treasured card back".

"Yusei…" the girl choked, tears swelling in her eyes. Her damaged heart shook from the feelings she felt from her missing twin. It was as tough Rua was standing over Yusei's shoulder, nodding his head in agreement with everything the teenager said. That Power Tool was reacting in her deck to the words.

"Martha's working on something for us to eat; how about you rest until she's ready. You need something to keep you strength up, Rua wouldn't want you to mope about until you passed out from exhaustion" he suggested. "He wouldn't do it if he was waiting for you to return from the Duel Spirit World. He'd be waiting with a smile, wanting that to be the first sight you saw. If there's a way we can get him back, I _promise_ you, we will find it".

Ruka nodded her head; the topic of exhaustion had brought to light just how drained she felt, she had been up during the night watching Yusei's duel against Rudger and then moving out with Ushio and Rua to face Demak By the time, Regulus and Ancient Fairy sat in her tiny hands as cards, the sun was rising over the Monkey Tower. She stepped forward; laying her head against Yusei's chest, the memory of waking in his arms after her duel in the Fortune Cup came to her. Yusei slipped his arms under her, lifting her tiny frame from the ground and carrying her to the warn sofa deeper in the room. He was about to lay her down when she clutched tightly onto his shirt. Latched onto him, she quivered, drawing his eyes to hers.

"Yusei… will you lay here with me?" she asked timidly. "Each and every moment that passed without Rua, she seemed to look more like the child she was. The child she had been. Despite her efforts in acting mature, she was still a child. Without the vibrant energy from her brother, the childish aura of constant excitement, she was growing backwards.

Yusei nodded his head, swinging his legs from the ground and laying them against each other over the cushions beside them. The couch was wide enough for them both to lay without concerns of falling off over the edge. Ruka pressed her head against Yusei's chest, falling asleep almost instantly. She wasn't going to leap away and deny needing his held; she was really reaching out for him, crying for him. He wrapped his arms around her, he would be there for her, he wouldn't leave her alone, he would be her Rua until the boy could appear with his gleeful smirk. He could never replace him, but he would be her shield and protect her from whatever threatened her. Just as he laid between her and the edge of the sofa, the vertical cushions behind her back.

These were the twins that saved him from Security when they first met, despite his Marker showing clearly on his left cheek. They could have handed him over, but they didn't. He would pay them back by doing whatever he could to rescue Rua, or at least ease Ruka's pain in the bleak world where rescuing a victim wasn't possible once swallowed by an Earthbound.

His azure eyes fell shut; for the first time in what felt like weeks, he finally slept.


	3. Feeling

**Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's - Breaking Point**

by Yusei

_**Summary - **__"She looked up at them, wanting to be like them, to be strong like them. Because they were strong; even when their hearts hurt. Slight Yusei x Ruka"  
__"He does not wish for you to cry for he stands over your shoulder. But you cannot see him. Your eyes observe those you care for, they hold the strength you believe you do not possess. But their hearts ache in the same way yours does__."_

_**Disclaimer - **__I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's nor any of the characters._

_**A / N - **__ Decided to rewrite this chapter after how disappointing the original copy felt. Hopefully, people can enjoy this version. The chapter itself shifts from Third-Person to First after experiments with oneshots, this one coming from Yusei and his relationship with Kiryu, focusing on how they can relate to Rua and Ruka. Please read and review._

* * *

**Chapter Three - Half Feeling  
**

**Yusei's POV**

Kiryu…

How had we come to this? I could never believed that revenge and hatred could become so powerful. So deadly. And yet… the man I looked up to in the months of Team Satisfaction rode ahead of me as a Dark Signer… as an _enemy_. Our paths had been set in cold stone; there was no alternative to escape the fight that had sparked between us. This would be where it ends, where I would finally speak the truth to Kiryu. If he would accept my words. Otherwise, he would remain blind to what he labelled lies.

Regardless f Kiryu's thirst for revenge, I would do whatever necessary to show him the truth. I would free his mind from the darkness that had fed off of his misjudgement for two years; the lies that clouded the real truth. Within the confides of my chest, my heart continued to moan in agony at what we stood against – not just be, but others; Crow, for example – we stood against former allies, former friends. I couldn't say the same for Jack, Ruka or Aki, but for me…

Was this just fate's cruel game to torment me – torment _us_?

Kiryu had been our saviour in the days before Team Satisfaction, he had brought us together in a way we had never previously considered; we were brothers in an exclusive family. The man who had saved my life – risking his own, on top of that – who now swore that he would bring an end to my existence. That realisation tore at my heart. Kiryu had been like an older brother, someone we could all look up to, now he glared down at us hatefully, grinning with that very madness that had consumed him once Satellite fell under his banner in its entity. Why? Why had this come to be? I spat on Rudger and his Jibakushin demons; they had lured Kiryu into a war that he was unprepared for back then, using his blind rage to lure him in and use him as little more than a tool of naivety.

A comrade, a friend, a _brother_. An enemy. Ruka… was this…?

My fingers tightened around the handgrips fixed into the ends of the arms stretching out from the crescent-shaped crimson D-Wheel I rode in. The same vehicle whose future seemed doubtful after the damage Kiryu had inflicted upon it last time with Ccapac Apu. To think that we were riding along the paths marked by hungry flames after the damage Kiryu had inflicted upon _me_ – without that matter alone – was unbelievable. I had convinced myself before seeing him upon the mound of rubbish that he would have been better off not meeting me again. I couldn't bear the thought of causing more pain, more fury. I had longed to visit him, just to heal the rift that formed… then the rumours he had passed away struck. I had to adjust my life, and that was what I did; hiding in the construction of my first D-Wheel, preparing to chase Jack after he robbed me of not only that D-Wheel, but Stardust. That was where this current D-Wheel came into everything.

I had been hiding. I had been running. And when Kiryu stabbed fear into my heart through his Jibakushin, he knew full-well that I had been avoiding the truth for so long. He had been baring me to confront what I had been reluctant to accept; that I was afraid and that he was a Dark Signer. And there I had been thinking I finally knew myself. Kiryu _still_ knew me that well. Was that the true Kiryu beneath the exterior layers of darkness, deception and poisoned agony? Was he fighting to reach through to me? Or waiting for his moment to strike and get _his_ revenge?

I prayed that the former would be the case; I wanted to _save_ Kiryu, not condemn him to death. If only I could be granted that wish, but there was no guarantee that was possible. Jack had pushed me forward to fight; sitting back and moping would do nothing. I hadn't died already and I wouldn't die now, not in any form. I would continue to live; solely to rescue Kiryu as he had rescued me in the past. No matter what, I would find the light that would grant mercy for him.

Over out heads, the very Jibakushin that had poisoned my friend with darkness that haunted me – the being that had seized his lust for revenge and turned him into my enemy – moaned, towering over us like we were mere ants. Jibakushin… Ccapac Apu. My eyes fell from it to Kiryu's modified D-Wheel and then to the bridge barely visible over the thick purple flames; the bridge created out of a torn highway. Upon it, Crow and Ushio stood either side of the broken young girl, the one who I swore I would bring hope back to. I would find Rua and bring him back to her. Wherever he may be. Whatever it may take.

Tears had spilled incessantly once we returned to Martha's. I had seen her worry and I had seen her fear, but I had never seen her so broken as her eyes leaked until they reddened. I promised her that I would find Rua, I promised Kiryu that I wouldn't run. I would put myself in the line of fire just to feel even a fraction of his pain. Just so I could be dealt what I deserved for having not been able to protect him like I had intended. I would endure my retribution, just so I could atone for what Kiryu had gone through. Because I had failed to do anything to help him once he was in the iron arms of Security.

Kiryu glanced over his shoulder at me, an icy glare that sent a chill rushing through my body; this had been a man I felt closer to than anybody in the world at one time. Now he was swearing my death. Those looks – bitter hatred swelling in his blackened eyes, all from someone I still felt a powerful attachment to – they tore at my heart still, piercing glares tearing it to tatters. But I couldn't break down. Even if I bring an end to this personal feud with Kiryu and quell his darkness, there was still three Dark Signers out there.

Kiryu called up at his black divinity, the being he had summoned again, a God of the Underworld creeping beneath the living world. The creature he was determined to use to crush me and drag me to the same fate he believed I led him to. His guide to death.

"Feet it again! The fear or the Jibakushin!" he screeched with delight. "Ccapac Apu, direct attack!"

I was nothing to him, but he was everything to me. He was a friend, those that I held close in order to move forward. Without them, I would have broken down and perished long ago; long before following Jack to Neo-Domino. I, alone, had been carrying the burden of my father's project, even my name was a symbol of everything about it, just because of his hearty expectations of me. Because he wanted _me_ to bring people together like his experiment was supposed to. How successful I had been, but in the process, I had lost so many…

And broken bonds…

The enormous human-shaped beast leaned forward, extending its hand fiercely. The ground beneath to fall apart, crumbling with ease beneath the force of the God that had risen up from the depths of Hell. My hands tightened around the handgrips attached to the protective arms of my D-Wheel, heart beating furiously against my chest. My body went rigid, the muscles in my arms screaming at the sudden tightening. The hand of Death was rushing towards me, ready to claim me as it had been so eager to in our last encounter before fate intervened and denied it such opportunity. Kiryu's cackle rang out clear over everything, deafening above the chaos around us.

The memory of the last encounter played through my mind; the hand coming own to crush me like an insect, the point where my eyes fell shut and I could no longer glare feebly at the danger, the D-Wheel slowly after the explosion of the part that Rally had stolen for me what felt like eons ago, hitting the ground as the fissure through it up into the air. Blackness.

'_If this fear of mine… Kiryu, if it's connected to the fear you felt, then I won't run. By defeating your Jibakushin, I'll face your fear head-on'_.

Those were the words that passed through my mind; not believing I was going to crumble into nothing like Rally had sacrificing himself, not thinking about the war between light and darkness in the form of chosen Signers. I was set on Kiryu – my friend – and how he must have felt in the Detention Centre.

If my experience was anything to go by (a few days was nothing compared to an unconfirmed amount of time. Weeks? Months?), he had been through Hell before joining the dark allegiance. He had suffered because of the attack on Security, because of his attempted escape using the officer and his D-Wheel. Who knows how long he had endured that nightmare? The worst that happened to me was a few mere days and electrocutions in the frantic search for the legendary Birthmark. But Kiryu could have been in that place for anything up to two years; he had been broken, torn away from the cards he treasured as his only reminder of the outside world, and what freedom felt like. My hand released the grip and moved to the Duel Disk in front, I had hope lying beside me; I would utilise it to rescue him and erase the misty times.

"Trap Card open – War Hero's Baton" I protested firmly. "This turn; I can choose the target of my opponent's attack, I'll change the target of the Jibakushin to Junk Warrior".

The trusted monster that had become a major feature of my deck lowered before the crimson D-Wheel, like a shield, clutching the weapon that it had been supplied with a few turns previously. Shooting forward, it challenged the immense stretched hand, exploding against the palm. Through sacrifice, I was safe for now…

The smoke from the explosion engulfed the D-Wheel, passing by me as my lifepoints fell by 500.

"So you've used your monster as your shield to avoid it. However, Ccapac Apu's effect activates" Kiryu called, refusing to turn his head and even glance back at me. His arm swung around, his open hand passing by the immense creature over us like some divine creature descended from the heavens, come to judge the unworthy. The creature that couldn't be destroyed no matter what I attempted in order to bury it like a bad memory. "When it destroys a monster, it inflicts damage equal to the monster's attack points".

A purple aura became visible around the edges of the god's body, its effect activating. The second wave of damage was coming. My lifepoints had just fallen below the attack power of Junk Warrior at the time o its destruction; with Ccapac Apu's effect, they would plummet to nothing and claim my life. But… I couldn't allow that to happen; for Kiryu, for Ruka, for Rua.

"Trap Card open – Burst Synchro Summon! This turn, damage from an effect becomes zero".

The shield that appeared around me was of a transparent nature, the pink blast stopped in front of me and slipped past, sliding over my head and splitting into several directions. No-one would get hurt from a redirected attack this time. Not like the last time when Martha sacrificed herself for the sake of a young boy. No… this time, I was fighting for everyone. And none of them would get hurt. The sight of Kiryu and his god vanished through the pink wave. My card's effect hadn't ended, just as my battle was far from over. Especially with _him_ still out there.

Kiryu… just what had he said to manipulate you and use your anger against you? Kiryu, I would set you free. I wouldn't allow you to suffer any longer; I would release you as my atonement for failing you before. The memory returned, playing again like some constant guilt trigger, tormenting me with the fact that I had failed him. Pushing me to fight harder – beyond my limits.

"Next, I can Special Summon a monster that has the same number of attack points equal to the amount of damage I negated, ignoring the summoning conditions".

There was only one creature that I could play to really prove what I was trying to prove; the card that had been a beacon of hope to Rally and the others, the light that would guide them from their black prisons, what had led me after Jack, the dragon that made me a Signer. I would use it to save Kiryu from the darkness that had enveloped his heart, I would use it to save Rua. The glowing creature that would shine light upon everything I heard dear to rescue Satellite.

For Ruka, for Crow, for everyone.

"Take flight, _Stardust Dragon!_"

Where pink flames had been, the barrier around transformed, becoming the white light that rose like a tornado overhead, towards the sky until the top shone like the beacon of a lighthouse; Stardust rose from the lower with a proud shriek. The creature that had guided me into this war of light and darkness; of life and death. My eyes rose to it, if only there was another to rescue Kiryu. If only he hadn't been blinded to begin with.

My teen clenched at the face of that man: Rudger. Had he been the one Kiryu heard beckoning to his demist, to become a pawn in his evil web? My eyes fixated upon Stardust's shimmering body, the glittering wings expanded to their limits for it to glide so majestically. It hurt, but fate was a cruel power, there was no escape.

We had been apart for two years, reunited only because of the duel in which the Crimson Dragon had appeared, igniting the chain of events that brought us to the present. The sight of a dragon facing a Jibakushin brought back the scene of Rua and Power Tool standing opposite Demak and Cusillu, crippled by the vast power that came from the Monkey god's fist alone. The boy fought so hard while his sister was in the world of Duel Spirits, saving her dragon; her partner. The boy was wiling to give up his life in order to protect the girl he loved and treasured so deeply, to protect Satellite and the world for her. Kiryu's turn came to an end while my mind swam in the past; the one place people could regard as safe; but not me. Not us.

"_Ore no Turn"_. A Speed Counter appeared on top of the total we each possessed.

"I activate a Continuous Trap: Glowing Image of the Protector" Kiryu interjected, revealing the face-down card that he had placed. "When my opponent declares an attack, I can change the target to the Jibakushin"

He was so determined fr that Jibakushin to rip the life I had left from my body. Was that just how much he hated me because of the misunderstood events from that night? Was that the will of Ccapac Apu? If Chacu Challhua could control Bommer when Crow awakened him from the powers that clouded his mind and heart, then we couldn't put anything past those things".

"At this rate, Stardust Dragon's attack will be directed to the Jibakushin. I activate a Speed Spell; Angel Baton. I draw two cards and discard one card". As the card commanded, I pulled two from the deck, slipping one monster into the Graveyard. "The card I sent to the Graveyard is Stardust Xiao Long. This card can be revived from my Graveyard if there's a Stardust Dragon on my field".

The small dragon appeared through the blue vortex beside my D-Wheel, shooting to life form the Cemetery it had been buried inside. It gave a short growl of life, revealing its attack at 100 points.

"I set one card face-down and end my turn".

Even though it hurt; I had to fight one, I had to for Kiryu's sake. And to show Ruka where we stood what Rua would want her to do. Fight and move ahead in this bittern world of shadows and loneliness until a light would shine upon her and guide the way to a warmer place. A place of united and without suffering.

I glanced in the direction of the makeshift bridge from the crumbling road that I guessed they had used as a viewing box; our forces were few, but each held a spirit strong eough to pose many more than we had. We possessed an army in the sacrifices; in our hearts. I valued these people more than anything; my friends, even Kiryu whom I _knew_ had to still be in there. I would set him free just as he deserved.

Kiryu drew his card; a new Speed Counter appeared for each of us; putting Kiryu on 8 and myself on 5. Now was the chance to intervene just as he had.

"Trap Card open – Isolated Protected. This card is equipped to Stardust Dragon". Beside me, the card became white stars rising to the dragon, that which held the wish to save everyone affected by the assault launched against us. "Now I only take battle damage through Stardust".

"So you're stopping direct attack as well. I'll tear through that trick of yours" Kiryu countered. Over his shoulder, I could see his focus shifting to the Jibakushin, hungry for pre. "Jibakushin Ccapac Apu, attack Stardust Dragon!"

The underworld divinity reached forward, ready to snatch whatever hope Stardust and I possessed in one blow. Something I was no about to allow; there had been far too many lives lost already. I was not about to let them down.

"I activate Isolated Protector's effect. By sending this card to the Graveyard, I can stop destruction by battle".

"However, damage calculations are still applied. I activate a Continuous Trap: Demonic Devastation. I double battle damage if it's not a direction attack".

"What?"

Another opportunity to deal damage and tear power apart. While neither Stardust nor I would break, the throbbing persisted, my chest beginning to feel hollow in the face of such overwhelming darkness.

The air grew heavy, the ground beneath began to crumble Shards of the road and dust began to rise as though trying to bury whoever was on the ground. I yelled out, feeling the sting of the debris slicing past, lifepoints descending by 1100, my Speed Counters reducing by one. Something beneath started to feel wrong, like the ground was beginning to give way after the devastation that Kiryu's creature had caused from the attacks.

Nearby, a fissure was throwing him towards the purple flames flaring at the edges of the field; the same fate he had sent me through, trying to kill me in the flames of his vicious hatred. He yelled out, feeling his control slipping; in the chaos of his last attack, he was losing his grip on the path he had taken. He was slipping towards the fire that waited hungrily. I turned to him; I had let him down once, but not again. I had promised myself – _and_ Kiryu – that failure was no long an option, either in duelling or in rescuing a close friend.

"Kiryu!" My D-Wheel began to turn, sparks spitting for a brief second as I positioned myself to open a hand for him to take. So that I could drad him away from the flames before anything happened. His D-Wheel straightened, he was gradually regaining control. "Kiryu!"

"Impossible…"

"Kiryu".

His eyes finally turned to me, seeing the extended hand; just as he offered me when we were younger, trying to take us under his wing. His expression softened; perhaps the day he saved me from death finally intruded his mind. The recollection that pushed me forward to liberate him from the blinding shadows. The one true inspiration for finding light that _had_ to linger in his heart.

The D-Wheel inched closer; he was almost in my reach alone, why wouldn't he grab my hand? _Why?_ Inwardly, I screamed his name repeatedly, waiting to feel that hopeful grip, the one that had accepted salvation promised. That I was there for him; I always _had_ been. That I had never abandoned him.

I hoped that Ruka was watching; for her to understand that no-one was at fault. Just like Rua stood in front of her as a shield, I would reach out to Kiryu even when it meant risking death.

"Yusei…"

His voice sounded gentle; there was no vengeful tone of bloodlust. My heart shuddered, yet at the same time, I was overcome with relief. _This_ is what I had been searching for; the moment to break through everything.

"I was mistaken" I called to him, desperate for him to hear my words, finally. "I thought that by making myself a sacrifice, I could save you back then. But I was wrong. Saving a friend is a friend's duty. It's through those feelings.

The arm I held out began to shine brighter, the Birthmark almost burning my skin as though to remind me that Signers and Dark Signers are enemies. No… that wasn't the case, it was shining brighter from feelings I had never felt so strongly for before. It was reacting to the power in that emotion; the desire to save Kiryu from death, to bring him back and stand before him as though we had reversed time and returned to the days of Team Satisfaction. Before everything went wrong.

"Jack and Crow feel the same And new friends have supported us. This fight isn't to defeat you; this is a fight to _save_ you – a friend – from the Dark Signers.

"Yusei… It's too late. What are you trying to do now?"

His eyes closed through the latter part of his reply, the question I already supplied an answer to – _I want to save you, Kiryu. I want to be there for you._

His D-Wheel slid closer to the flames, licking it threateningly ready to swallow him. He yelled out in pure terror at the new descent. This was a man who had helped not only myself, but Crow and Jack. Someone who had just been looking for something to do in Satellite, he had just been bored. And now was facing death for a second time. I couldn't stand seeing him like this; terrified like a child. I wouldn't lose him again; I _wouldn't!_

No matter what the risk was to me, I wouldn't allow him to die again.

"_KIRYU!_"

The Birthmark became even brighter, glowing with an intensity never seen before; the feelings of the others poured into me, I could sense each of them: Aki, Jack, Ruka. They were all waiting for this fight to end, each suffering from this prophecy, but they fought nonetheless for something – friends, family, strangers. A sudden power began to build within me, the mergence of those emotions and – as I would later learn – the Birthmarks we each bore. The symbols of our exclusive roles in the world, even the Head appeared within me. The Fifth Signer whose identity remained a mystery to everyone.

Five Birthmarks; five people, each with their own fight to face. Those that combined within my body. I couldn't feel it, but I was aware of the mark of the Crimson Dragon – the _full_ Birthmark, its entire body – shining on my back. I withdraw my arm, if I didn't end this now, Kiryu would suffer in those flames – a fate that no-one deserved; I had experienced the threatening heat, the scorching flames that weakened my D-Wheel. No-one deserved to die so viciously.

"Our emotions are coming together and connecting…"

A light from the deck caught my eye; a golden glow from the top card. I gazed at it for a few seconds before reaching for it. My fingers touched it; there was nothing different about it; outside the glow, it was the same as any other card. After seconds of pondering, I drew it; this was still a race against time.

"_Ore no Turn!_" I held the card in view, seeing the artwork past the light; it was the one card that could truly stop the chaos. "I get it. This card has been awakened through our emotions and will bring forth a miracle. I'll use this card to save Kiryu. I summon the Tuner monster Savior Dragon!"

The being emerged like a tadpole with wings, spreading them out to their limits. Its name was the key, it was the Tuner Monster handed to me by the other Signers. The Crimson Dragon had acknowledged our wish. I could eradicate Ccapac Apu and conquer the Dark God, light could shine upon him once again.

Stardust gave a shriek at the emergence of the creature, its wings twitching eagerly. Together, we could prove that we could fight back, and that we _would_.

"I'm tuning my Level 8 Stardust Dragon, Level 1 Stardust Xiao Long and Level 1 Savior Dragon" I called, watching the process of Tuning begin. This was the end for the darkness. "_The radiance of the clustering stars will create a miracle! Become the path its light shines upon! Synchro Summon! Rise up; __**Savior Star Dragon!**_"

What looked vaguely like a metallic Stardust appeared over the battlefield; a field of colours reflecting off its body surrounded me and combined me with the creature. An aura around us of blues and greens and purples, a warmth of hope and light surged through us as I joined with Stardust, sharing the same form.

Together, we could be salvation for Kiryu, to liberate him of the darkness that had stolen him rom us. The creature was the strongest I could summon, the true mightiest creature in my deck with a base attack power of 3800. I spoke of its effect as thogh Kiryu could pay attention; anything to prevent wasting time.

"Savior Star Dragon can negate one of my opponent's monster's effects and gain that effect until the End Phase" I explained as though it were a normal duel. "I'll gain the Jibakushin's effect. _Submission Dragon!_"

A shower of lights began to rise from Ccapac Apu, the markings on its body began to dim; there was nothing it could fight back with, it had lost its power. This would be the end of revenge and dislodged hatred – the divine creature of the Underworld had been reduced to nothing. The lights gathered around Savior Star; now we could finish this. In my heart, I knew that even with lifepoints after the attack, losing Ccapac Apu was pacticall condemning Kiryu to defeat. But… this had to be done. This was, he wouldn't die, he would be saved. The old Kiryu Kyosuke would be reborn, and we could be friends and brothers again".

"Savior Star Dragon attacks Jibakushin Ccapac Apu".

The dragon's wings closed in by its sides, shooting forward like a bullet – our final race to the end of this madness. A blue glow appeared around it; its sheer power that would puncture the beast. Everything flashed through my mind in an instant, observing from within – through Savior Star's eyes – as the dragon raced forward, aiming for the large chest of the beast.

"_**Shooting Blaster Sonic!**_"

The dragon pierced Ccapac Apu's chest, shooting through its body and releasing another shower of lights – souls escaping through the monster's destruction. The dragon's wings spread once again as it emerged clear of the lights; unharmed, like nothing had happened, I felt everything through it. Everything.

The black creature began to flail before it exploded into a mass of blackness. Through the bright aura of the dragon, I could see the blackness closing in on Kiryu, his arm raised in an attempt to ineffectively protect himself from the approaching blackness, yelling in horror once again, his D-Wheel was nearing the flames even more.

"Kiryu!"

Savior Star assed through the conflagration; almost like a shield was around the dragon, the flames shrank in the second we passed through. I moved as close as I could to Kiryu; he would die if I couldn't reach him. I wouldn't fail at the last hurdle, _I wouldn't lose him now_. Through the dragon, I struggled to reach him, trying to transfer him between the vehicles. He came loose, a wave of relief washed over me as I grasped his one arm with both hands, we were safe in Savior Dragon. Savior Star rose again; in a matter of seconds, we had rescued him – he wouldn't leave us again. I held him close to my chest, I would do whatever I could to help him; he still had lifepoints – the duel wasn't over. His head twitched, I felt every movement through the hand that supported it.

"Get a hold of yourself, Kiryu" I called desperately. I wished he would move, just to prove he was still there after everything we had been through. "I won't abandon a friend. This time, I'll save you".

His eyes – _Kiryu's_ eyes – opened gradually while his head rose; there was still hope. He could continued to fight, to become an ally of ours and take on those that had corrupted him.

"Yusei… Jibakushin Ccapac Apu's effect…" he sounded, his voice was so weak. So frail. But Kiryu wasn't weak, he had _never_ been weak! "It deals damage equal to the destroyed monster's attack points. In total, I take 3800 pints of damage".

A gasp escaped my lips as they parted, the shock pulsed through me. No. _No! __**Not again!**_

My heart trembled at the thought of losing him again. When my eyes fell upon his face, he began to smile up at me. He had acknowledged his end was near. His second demise. Yet his face seemed to so calm; he wasn't afraid, he wasn't yelling like the last time we had seen each other before he was poisoned. "When I became a Dark Signer, I had one more wish. I wanted to finish Team Satisfaction's last duel that I couldn't finish back then".

My eyes narrowed, trying not to shed tears. I spoke his name again; I could feel where Ruka had been, where Aki had been. There was nothing but the two of us, the geoglyph vanished long before I realised. Savior Star's aura remained around us, carrying us away from the bloodied battlefield, embracing us in its light. Where was the salvation it promised? Had I just been liked to again – easily manipulated? Ruka, Ushio and Crow… they simply watched on without either Kiryu or I acknowledging them – lost in our world. A world where we should have been able to live forever, the scythe of Death unable to penetrate our detached world.

"I hated you so much" Kiryu muttered weakly with a smile. He had realised the error of his ways; why did it have to be as he was about to die? Why was it in the face of death that they realised? I shook my head, I hated myself back then too. I hated that I had failed. And I was about to again. I couldn't save him. "I'm really sorry… Can't be satisfied with something like this…"

I opened my eyes to see him, his body began to fade to grey, vanishing before my eyes as nothing more than dust. I held back the tears that grewy in my eyes, held down the cry locked in my through. I spoke with all the strength I could and still, my voice wavered.

"_Kiryu…"_

My eyelids closed over my eyes; it hurt to see the arms out empty in the position they had held onto him. The place where he had died. Why? Why did people have to die in these fights? My arms fell Savior Star descended to the gravel, allowing my D-Wheel and I to pass through and return to the earth that mankind was bound, continuing on in all its glory, shrieking at the loss.

I pushed the arm to my left up and climbed out of the vehicle, watching Savior Star soaring overheard, glittering sorrowfully. The creature had been bestowed upon me by the Crimson Dragon, gliding delicately; shimmering like the sun that had risen after the fall of Cusillu. The hope we had all held within the confides of our united hearts. That light which had been fading.

Rua had been lost. Aki had suffered. I had just ended Kiryu's existence. How many more were there to suffer? What would be the fate of those who had suffered? What about the Dark Signers that Aki and Jack chased after –w hat of _their_ faces and pasts?

Pressing my hands against the sides of the helmet over my head, the memory of Rally in my arms, suffering the same fate replayed inside of me. I had been unable to save him too. The helmet came off my head and fell, hanging in front of my chest, pressed between my hands. I glanced at the road that Crow, Ushio and Ruka stood upon; using all the strength I had left just to stop myself from falling onto my knees and crying until I had no more tears to shed. My hands moved; laying the helmet on the seat I had used. Then I had to move on, I stepped away from the vehicle, keeping my back to both it and the bridge. The Giant Tower came into my field of view, that place that had been my target, the thing that Kiryu had been guarding for the enemy. The last time we found one of its brethren, we had lost another friend.

Rua…

I glanced at the bridge in the corner of my eye. Ruka, was this how you felt? This pain… this emptiness? Kiryu may not have been a half of me, but he was the closest I had ever felt to someone. I could feel your pain, like my heart had fallen apart. I couldn't even grieve when there was another out there, waiting to laugh just as Kiryu had once Rally passed on.

That bastard… Rudger.

I stared aimlessly at the scene of empty devastation ahead, there was little more I could do. I had the assignment of using Stardust to bring down the Giant Tower. But I couldn't bring myself to do it. Not yet.

"Kiryu… You're my friend. I… for the sake of my friends, for you…" My fist rose in front of my chest, what I swore was anything by words. These would be actions; I would do whatever possible to fulfil the vow I swore for everyone. "I'll definitely defeat the Dark Signers!"

My fist clenched tightly, grasping the desire to bring an end to this war that flared more than ever. The dam holding back the pain could stand against the overflowing emotions no more, a tear slipped from my eyes, breaking against my knuckles. I threw my heard up, allowing those holding on to flow.

"_KIRYU!_"

Savior Star drifted away, finally fading as its majestic glide came to an end. It had continued to exist much longer than any other creature following a duel. Beyond victory. The creature began to fade, vanishing into nothing more than holographic shimmering in the midday light. Just as Aki's… my mask had finally cracked and fell.

I didn't return to the D-Wheel to retrieve Stardust, I just wanted to stand and watch… wait until this war was over. For everyone to appear like nothing had happened, like Death had never lingered here, scouting out its next victim. Ruka could feel whole with Rua., Aki could prove to Divine she had moved on, Crow could take care of his kids, Jack could…

Outside Martha and Kiryu, I couldn't think of anyone he had lost. Perhaps his loss ties in with the fifth Dark Signer, the one whose identity only he seemed to know.

But she was not the only one left, Aki still had to fight. And then there was the leader… the Spider… the man responsible for the death of my parents, the man responsible for Satellite breaking away from Neo-Domino. Another who was waiting to save me – Rudger Godwin.

_He_ was the one that had caused everything to happen from the moment he planned Zero Reverse. I would make him pay for everyone: my parents, my friends, the other Signers, everyone in Satellite. The vow I pledged burned brightly in my heart, even in the bitter loneliness that swept over me.

Kiryu… Rua… I'll fight on for you.


	4. Tormented

**Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's - Breaking Point**

by Yusei

_**Summary - **__"She looked up at them, wanting to be like them, to be strong like them. Because they were strong; even when their hearts hurt. Slight Yusei x Ruka"  
__He does not wish for you to cry for he stands over your shoulder. But you cannot see him. Your eyes observe those you care for, they hold the strength you believe you do not possess. But their hearts ache in the same way yours does__."_

_**Disclaimer - **__I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's nor any of the characters._

_**A / N - **__Revision complete, I hope this time, the chapter focuses more on what I was aiming for and much better than the last version. Please read and review._

* * *

**Chapter Four - Half Tormented  
Ruka's POV**

Hands united in front of my chest, a barrier for the heart in my chest trembling in absolute fear – we stood in the belly of the crater left by Zero Reverse. This was the place where hundreds perished on that day long before my life began. This was Old Momentum, and I couldn't recall any other place I could feel more terrified of. If that wasn't enough, Yusei was duelling Rudger Godwin – leader of the enemy and bearer of the Spider Birthmark; responsible for the death of Rally, which pushed Yusei forward, motivation for fighting the man. On top of him, I could almost feel Yusei's desire to fight for Rua and Kiryu, two more victims of this wretched war I knew he held treasured bonds with. The bonds that pushed one foot in front of the other.

Above us, the circular cavity in the earth of Satellite granted us a view of the sky blanketed by grey clouds that gave the impression evening had already come. Flames roared whilst clinging onto the ground, scorching the earth of a place tormented by this deep, dark secret for seventeen years. Beneath us, the pit that seemed bottomless after the veil of spiralling Momentum that had been unleashed; turning delicately, innocently – the force was far from its gentle appearance, colours of the rainbow blending into each other leisurely. Like a child's imagination. Holding the souls of so many destroyed lives. The wondrous force had latched onto the walls of the chasm, clinging to the edges of the pit like the threads of a spider web – that which Rudger intended. And the only place for Yusei and the Spider Dark Signer to stand was a precarious bridge hanging over the immense height, anything could bring it down. That was what I feared the most.

Yusei had been driven here by the loss of Kiryu – each time we lost someone – whether Rudger was directly involved or not – he became desperate to fight the man, the challenge set at Old Momentum had come at the perfect moment for him. But within my heart, an uneasy feeling grew. I couldn't understand. Was Crow right that this duel was merely a trap to lure Yusei to Old Momentum? This _was_ the place where the incident occurred, the birth of Satellite and the death of his parents, of Jack and Crow's parents on top of that. But he didn't heed Crow's concerns; instead, he wandered blindly into this place, a site bearing many scars, a site were thousands of fates were sealed in the most horrific manner. My body shuddered at the thought of such a power, I felt relieved that it had been before my time. But everyone else wasn't to lucky, they all lived through the period that the distressing event occurred in – those bearing the Crimson Dragon's Birthmarks no older than two years at the time.

Ushio-san moaned anxiously, seizing my attention. I glanced up at him, seeing the expression I would never believed I could see from him; he looked terrified on Yusei's behalf.

"Ushio-san, are you alright?" I asked gently.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Ruka-chan" he answered, waving his hand dismissively. I wasn't convinced, Ushio-san wasn't one to handle these events as smoothly as the rest of us; his passing out during Ancient Fairy Dragon's appearance remained the base of my belief. My eyes shot downwards, scanning the area for the other Satellite teenager.

"Where's Crow?"

"Huh?"

"Crow, he vanished! What if Uru gathers souls as sacrifices? There are no other Signers here, he'll be vulnerable!"

"Damn…"

"Ushio-san assessed the path we travelled down, failing to sight any clue. He shrugged without any idea what we were to do; we couldn't leave the position we had taken to search blindly for him, who knew where we would travel to? Who knew if we could even find him? Old Momentum was such an immense place, the crater we stood at the edge of descended so far that it felt as though it extended down to the last layer of the Earth's crust. We had no real idea how deep into the crust Old Momentum sank; what Yusei and Rudger stood over, was as close to a bottomless pit as I could imagine. Instead of searching for Crow, I simply prayed for his sake, that he not become another victim of the Jibakushin curse.

All we could do was watch the duel and pray that Yusei wouldn't have to face the deadly demon once again, the very creature that had stripped his friend, Rally, of his life. I could only imagine what was running through his mind as he stood opposite the elder Godwin brother – the man responsible for creating Satellite, for killing his parents and those of his friends, who turned Kiryu against him, who killed Rally. A man that threatened peace long before he became a Dark Signer.

Our minds and eyes resumed observing the bout, Rudger's lifepoints tumbling to 1700 following a direct attack from Yusei' Junk Warrior. Regardless of the massive damage dealt to the enemy leader, the tactic he was relying upon was clear – he would accept every blow Yusei would strike, just to summon his ultimate creature – he was setting up for his Jibakushin. That realization brought with it a bitter chill dancing along my spine; up and down along my back to taunt me. My hand clenched over my chest, an attempt to calm my thumping heart, and I turned back to Ushio-san.

"I can feel it" I exhaled apprehensively. "Stay by my side".

Ushio-san gave another nod. My bro furrowed in a last desperate examination of the path we had taken in the hopes of see Crow arrive just in time. There was no sign of him, my heart shook, fearing for his sake. Rudger's turn began, the only sign we had was the words that he spoke, loud enough to bounce from the walls of the crate and echo. He had drawn out a Field Magic card – the requirement for the Jibakushin to posses their special abilities, their territory gave them immunity to death. The card entered the extended slot that slid out of the Duel Disk.

Threads rose from the Momentum, his magic card was combining with the force, climbing past us. They didn't extend to the mouth of the crater, before then, the usual web of a spider appeared between us and the sight of the sky. The chill grew colder. It was coming…

My knees knocked each other like a violent earthquake was striking Satellite. I remembered just how terrifying the Jibakushin were. My mind preyed on Rua… was he scared of facing one? Perhaps he masked his fears, but did he doubt the dragons against these underworld superiors?

By the time I tore my eyes from the frightening sigh of the woven threads, a new setting for a revival, Rudger's spider creatures had disappeared and his arms rose. My body trembled, _that beast_ was coming. And despite the distance, Rudger's words reached us, even faintly like whispers.

"The souls of the dead trapped within the light… in order to bring forth the demonic truth to this world, lend me your strength" he chanted.

This was his ritual to bring out that the Underworld's released threat. The Momentum shone brighter, Ushio-san wrapped his arms around me tightly, almost lifting me from the ground to ensure he wouldn't be sacrificed. I gazed in terror at the lights that appeared from the bottom of the pit, were they souls of people lost in Zero Reverse? Were Yusei's parents somewhere amongst them? Or Jack and Crow's?

"Come forth, _Jibakushin Uru!_"

The pulsing case that absorbed souls appeared by the top of the spider web. Just as previous encounters, it began to beat like a heart, pulsating like Uru would emerge from it, the internal glow of a sinister purple shade. And then… above us, Uru's legs appeared out of the border of the crater. The officer grasping me tightly in his arms yelled like a frightened child, sounding fear from everybody.

At that point, my Birthmark acted to the presence and forged the transparent crimson barrier around us, I clutched my arm as it happened, gazing as more of Uru's enormous body appeared. Flames identical to those of the burning geoglyph appeared at the spider's feet, which easily extended to both ends of the chasm's walls, it hung over the battleground threateningly. We had entered not only Rudger's, but Uru's domain now.

Fear tightened the muscles in my throat; I wanted to cry out desperately to Yusei, to warn him of what he already knew. Ten eyes, at least, locked onto him, the strongest of the beasts we had seen so far, and he was facing it for the second time.

"A Jibakushin can attack directly if there is a Field Spell on the field" Rudger commented, a chilling fact that we had call become aware of. "Go Jibakushin Uru, attack Yusei directly! Hail Thread!"

A weak cry of terror for Yusei escaped me, clenching my fists tighter. No matter how much damage Yusei had inflicted upon Rudger's lifepoints, it would mean nothing if Uru could bypass his creatures and strike him directly. No matter what cards were set on his field, they were almost invincible. Uru, just like the others, was a monster that we had to prepare ourselves for the worst when it attack, normal shields would crack and collapse as the attacks smashed through them and struck down the opponent. It was a haunting fact.

We were standing in the dark bowels of a disaster zone, the howls of lost souls filled the cavern, moaning for another to join them in eternal suffering, ordinary people that had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. My fingers tightened between their counterparts, the nails sinking, coming to a pressure strong enough to draw blood.

"I activate a Trap – Synchro Barrier!" Junk Warrior appeared between the attack and Yusei, shattering once the threads struck it.

"What?"

Yusei explained what he card had done – saved him – and I sighed with relief. Rudger continued his turn, even without a monster on the field; Yusei was safe, for now. Rudger spoke of his Destiny Trigger, picking a monster card from the top of his deck and explaining what that meant – if Yusei drew a monster, he would lose half of his lifepoints. He challenged Yusei to begin his turn and see what care fate bestowed upon him. Yusei pulled the card from his deck, holding up a Trap, another grateful sigh escaped.

"But he can't let his guard down yet" Ushio-san mumbled. "How is he supposed to fight that Jibakushin?"

"Yusei…"

Yusei laid down a new card, his Speed Warrior. It was a creature very familiar to Ushio-san and I as it appeared like an acrobat. Uru had fallen once, hopefully, Yusei could bring it down again with whatever plan he had. Rally's sacrifice, despite Yusei's pleas for Rally to attack him, played through my mind, Rudger had no shame or guilt using a child as a shield, laughing once the outcome was decided. Was he going to try it again? Would we ever truly defeat him if he was going to keep hiding behind captured souls? My palms came together as I thought of Martha and how much she must be worrying. I knew she believed in Yusei and Jack, but she hadn't seen the horrors we had. What we fought on despite seeing.

Yusei ordered the monster to launch a new direct attack on Rudger, if it worked; he would have only a small amount of lifepoints left.

"You're too naïve, Yusei. I activate a Trap – Earthbound Halberd! I destroy the attack monster and deal damage equal to half its attack points".

The spider seemed to emit a gust aimed at the charging monster; it stood no chance against the force and shattered into piece instantly. Yusei called out in surprise before the gust engulfed him, rushing past and forcing him to raise his shining arm as a shield. His lifepoints had fallen by 900. Dread flooded Ushio-san and I – his field was empty, with the exception of one face-down card – and he was still standing beneath a Jibakushin. Rudger began to taunt Yusei's inability to die, trying to challenge him to stand for as long as possible, he loved Yusei's pain, wishing to draw it out.

"Go, Uru. Attack Yusei directly. Hail Thread!" he echoed

_No! Yusei!_

"I activate a Trap – Spirit Force!" Yusei shouted in defiance. "This card reduces battle damage to 0 and I can add a monster with 1500 or less defence points from my Graveyard to my hand".

I had been about to praise Yusei's strategy, tackling two fronts at once, when Rudger spoke. "Yusei… looks like this is as far as you go". The words crept bitterly down me. He was smirking – a Dark Signer smirking meant one thing: we were about to suffer another blow. A card on his field lifted – Ground Web.

"I negate the activation and effect of my opponent's Magic or Trap". The card by Yusei's side exploded, golden shards flying into the darkness. All anyone could do now was watch.

"Oh no!" Yusei cried out. His eyes barely caught a glimpse of the threads before they slammed into his the Duel Disk he raised as a shield. He flew back, yelling out as though he expected to fall over the edge and plunge into the Momentum below. He hit the bridge face-up, the bridge began to sway. How long was it going to be before it gave way if it was weak enough to rock after Yusei fell back? Was that was Rudger was planning?

Yusei turned onto his side as his lifepoints plunged to 100; such tremendous damage had been taken in one blow. He was shaking from the power, a scene that tore me, my heart ached as the reality that all I could do was stand by and watch became apparent once again.

"Yusei!" He was on his stomach, trembling as he struggled to pick himself up, lying battered before his greatest enemy who merely laughed at the scene.

"Yusei, I'll let you go soon. Towards the light below where your father is resting, that is".

Those constant taunts from one so confident in the power of death, it sickened me. I pressed a hand against my stomach, feeling the disgust of both Ancient Fairy and Power Tool towards the demon hanging above in some kind of superior fashion, just because we had entered it den – we weren't prisoners, Yusei would still fight. He drew from his deck – it was his turn to fight.

He held up the Monster card he had drawn, earning a chuckle from Rudger, the purple veins that tainted his skin throbbed as he did so; they had succeeded in creeping onto the right side of his face. He explained the effect of Destiny Trigger once again, adding that Yusei's lifepoints would be halved. The thumb of the hand moved, pressing down the red button of the bone it clutched. It exploded, resulting in sudden gusts racing across the field and threatening to knock Yusei down once again. He yelled in response, his lifepoints sliced to just 50, and he fell to his knees, bowing before Rudger.

"_Yusei!_"

He glanced back at Ushio-san and me, shielded from the deadly power of the Jibakushin. An empty space beside me screamed the place where Rua would have been standing. My hand sunk deeper into my stomach, why was there nothing I could do but stand by and watch my friends suffer so much? I was scared, but that was not the reason I didn't fight – Yusei had a personal grudge against Rudger, for all the sins the man had committed, he was fighting for those he had lost in the past ad present, people he hadn't completely given up on.

While Yusei resumed his turn, I moved my focus to Ushio-san, there was still no sign of Crow, nothing to deny he had been amongst those absorbed by Uru. Ushio-san must have noticed my darting eyes across the corridor behind us.

"Ruka-chan?"

"Crow still hasn't appeared; what if he was absorbed by Uru?" I asked, feeling tears brimming in my eyes. First Rally, then Rua; don't tell me Crow had shared their dim fate.

"Crow's a tough guy, I'm sure he's somewhere safe. The souls we saw came from the Momentum, there's nothing to suggest Crow was taken. Uru probably has enough from that fog that engulfed Satellite anyway; all those people have been shared between the six of those things – up to half of them must have been released by those defeated".

In the centre of the bridge, the duel had come to a standstill; Rudger spoke of his past with Yusei's father, leaving the rest of us to listen to his tale. He spoke of how great the project had been until a tremor caused the machine forced Professor Fudo to end the project. Rudger travelled to Peru and met a man from Yliaster at the Spider Nazca Line. He returned to Neo-Domino and looked into the Momentum, seeing the original battle between the Crimson Dragon's servants and the Jibakushin army. That was when he took over the project and forced Professor Fudo to steal the cards and escape, only to be shot and drop Ancient Fairy. It certainly explained how she ended up in Demak's hands; it was strange how she was imprisoned in the Spirit World while the card existed in the hands of our enemy. I didn't think ill of Professor Fudo, he tried to save her too, it was just fate that she was left before, he didn't mean it; there was nothing to blame him for. Rudger continued on to the arm he severed, explaining that Godwin had been given it before he committed his ultimate sin.

"Wait… so _he's_ the Fifth Signer?" Ushio-san blurted.

"He must be" I whispered, just as stunned. The words came of their own accord; the truth had yet to sink into my mind too. "He said that the man from Yliaster knew about the Dragon Head on his arm. And that must have been what Godwin meant by the Fifth Signer knowing already". But why had Godwin promised that the Fifth would appear, bringing the power of the Crimson Dragon – how could Rudger do that when he was an enemy? A servant of the Underworld Gods determined to bring down the Crimson Dragon and slay it. He had deceived us. He had chosen blood over the world.

"So you're trying to act like God?" Yusei scowled at him. Rudger had come to an end a moment before, the truth just tried to nestle itself in. Rudger had claimed the pit beneath was the gateway to Hell, something that he, his brother and Professor Fudo had discovered a long time ago. "How many more lives do you have to take before you're satisfied?"

Inwardly, I asked the same question. There were hundreds, maybe thousands, that were suffering after losing someone close to them to the enemy. There were many more in Satellite and Neo-Domino that could just sit and grieve over their lost ones, I could still fight for Rua. For everyone that had suffered.

Just like Yusei's, m y right hand tightened, closing itself into a ball filled with the determination to bring about the end of the Dark Signers' reign of terror – we shared the ultimate goal in rescuing everyone and recovering someone we had lost. We could stand back to back while Aki-san and Jack tackled the Humming and Lizard, the final targets. Rudger's turn was well underway when my eyes opened, blazing with the ignited flames that Yusei had lit for me. The story had touched a nerve – he had been fighting for good before he had become tainted.

"Yusei! I can't be stopped here. Go, Jibakushin Uru. Attack Yusei directly!"

The proud demonic God released a spray of threads, aiming to capture Yusei's life and strip it from his body. That was when Yusei yelled out in protest, using Zero Guardna to negate the attack. The creature sacrificed itself, saving him once more. This place was unfit for a Signer to die, forced into the ground like the dirty little secret of Satellite's creation, filled with the stench of death and betrayal, even after seventeen years. Rudger continued with a face-down card and left it there.

"If he takes a direct attack, he'll lose. Yusei, please let this end" I whispered, tucking my chin behind the locked hands that had raise. It was the only wish I had – for the Dark Signers to fall and for everyone to be returned to us, even those who we hadn't confirmed had passage to the living world; people like Rally and Rua.

"Believe in Yusei" Ushio-san uttered. That was right, I had to believe.

But to my dismay, Yusei didn't summon a monster; his fate lied in two face-down cards. If Rudger activated his face-down card and it prevented the effect of Yusei's from protecting him… _No_, I had to believe.

But each moment that passed was draining. Hope was seeping through my body and dissolving in the air, Yusei _had_ to play a monster eventually if he planned to survive the duel. My heart leapt into my throat, scaling my chest in an instant.

"Trying to defend yourself, Yusei?" Rudger laughed, drawing from his deck. He played a Magic card, Earthbound Whirlwind. It would allow him to destroy Yusei's cards. A spiralling gust closed the gap; this would leave Yusei wide open and vulnerable to Death.

"_No!_ He can't destroy Yusei's cards – that will leave him with an empty field" I cried, desperate for Yusei to make his move. "He can't lose. _Yusei!_"

"That's what I've been waiting for" Yusei bellowed in protest. "Trap activate – Starlight Road!" From the lifted card, a massive light emerged, slamming into the cyclone and ending it. "It negates an effect that destroys two or more cards. In addition, it Special Summon Stardust Dragon. Show yourself, Stardust!"

Yusei lifted his hand, opening it up like he was about to grasp the particles of light that gathered above his palm. The light exploded into a ray, expanding towards the sky and revealing the true form of the majestic dragon – Stardust. The familiar shriek of the dragon illuminated my heart, certainly radiating the same feelings in Ushio-san's.

"So you've appeared, Stardust Dragon. But it's too late" Rudger chuckled, speaking to the dragon as if Uru was using him to talk after so long since their last battle – that ancient war five millennia ago.

"It's not too late" Yusei protested sharply. "I activate the Trap card, Shooting Star! When I have Stardust Dragon on my field, I can destroy one card. The one I'll destroy is your Field Magic: Spider Web".

"You're too naïve, Yusei" Rudger commented casually, unfazed by the move that would leave his Jibakushin vulnerable to an attack. "I activate my Trap; Stability! By making the attack points of one of my monsters zero, I can negate the activation of a Magic or Trap".

Uru's attack power plummeted to nothing, forcing the Trap Yusei had to explode. The attempt of ridding the battlefield of the webs climbing to the walls had failed, leaving the vile man with little choice but to end his turn. And with that close, Uru's attack power rose to its original 3000, like nothing had happened.

"My turn" Yusei shouted, drawing from his deck.

The tug-of-war for an advantage dragged on. There was neither side that could make a decisive play that would seal the duel; they were locked in a constant struggle. How long would this go on for? How long before Yusei could finally fight back against the Jibakushin that had stolen those lives that meant so much to him?

Through Yusei's new Trap, a Stardust replica emerged by the original, what he called a Waltz Token. Its skin was grey rather than the blue and white that the original possessed, it copied Stardust's form and power, but lacked its beauty. Needless to say, the two together was something that sparked a ray of hope once again; Yusei had two dragons to defend himself rather than a lone Stardust.

"But a Jibakushin can't be chosen as an attack target" Rudger reminded, smirking slyly.

"That one I'm aiming for is _you_, Rudger" Yusei called. "Go, Waltz Token".

The replica dove at Rudger with incredible speed. The Dark Signer stood firmly, showing no fear to the assault that would destroy him; he remained focused on his Trap card. It rose, revealing itself as Earthbound Halberd.

"This is my victory" Rudger declared.

"_Yusei!_" I yelled unable to accept the Tail Signer – a close friend of mine, someone that helped me in so many ways in such a short time – losing.

"I activate Stardust Dragon's effect – _Victim Sanctuary!_" Stardust's form dissolved into particles of blue light that enveloped the destructive power and neutralised it. Yusei and his Waltz Token remained unharmed; they had survived another turn. It both relieved and terrified me that there was still a large chance he could lose. He was hanging by a thread, even a miniscule strike would be enough to wipe him out. "Go, Waltz Token!"

"Yusei wins" I cried out, smiling gleefully when there was little Rudger could do to prevent the attack from finishing him off. The transition between fear and joy was sudden, something I would have expected from Rua. If only he could be here…

"Not yet" Rudger objected. "Trap activate – Glowing Image of the Protector" Just as it was about to strike Rudger, the card forced the Waltz Token to alter its course, sending it into a suicidal aerial charge with Uru. "Uru's attack points are 3000. This is the end, Yusei. But don't feel too bad, we are this world's rulers to be, after all".

Yusei stood firmly, iron-willed by the promised he made to everyone to destroy the threat haunting the Earth. The Waltz Token exploded against the skin of Uru, flooding the bridge with smoke that cut off the view Ushio-san and I shared.

"_Yusei!_" I screeched, stepping forward when Ushio-san seized my wrist. I turned to him furiously, pulling against his strong grasp. "Let me go! I've got to stop this from happening!"

"There's nothing you can do" the officer mumbled grimly. "This is Yusei's fight, he can handle himself. He won't want you rushing in blindly and putting yourself in danger".

"But-"

Ushio-san pointed to the duel where the smoke began to clear, revealing Yusei still standing with the same amount of lifepoints he had before the failed assault. My eyes widened in disbelief, heart thumping from the adrenaline pumping furiously through me. This duel was truly taxing to watch, let along take part in.

"Too bad, but when a Waltz Token is destroyed, both players take zero Battle Damage".

"What?"

"Waltz Token's effect. A monster that destroys it loses attack power equal to the token's attack points".

Uru groaned as its attack power fell to just 500, there was no chance of it regaining the amount that had been lost. While that seemed to be the case and it opened a window of opportunity to fight back through, I couldn't help but feel anxious – something wasn't right, but it wasn't just the duel. Yusei's tone changed when he moved on to something closer to home.

"Rudger, I don't care about your fate. You've forgotten. Because of your fate, there have been so many victims" he called, throwing his Birthmark arm to the side as though a crowd of victims' souls had gathered, watching the duel from their prison. "You don't know what the people who survived are going through.

In that moment, his hand shifted slightly – thought I couldn't see it, his fingers moved to me. He was talking about me as well – a girl amongst thousands who had lost someone close – men, women, and children. Old and young. Satellite and City. Everyone had been hurt, no-one was an exception, no-one was special this time around.

"If my father hadn't had his experiments, the incident 17 years ago never would have occurred. That experiment took the lives of Crow and Jack's parents. It's ruined everyone's lives" His eyes fell closed, trying to shut off a part of him that no-one had ever seen before, a side of suffering, his pain locked up for years, the guilt equivalent to all 17 years since the incident, the equivalent for two people. "If it had never happened, everyone would have loving parents and would have a happy life".

His eyes opened again, tears breaking free from the edges of his sockets – this sight was enough to steal the breath in my throat, grasp my heart until it throbbed for him. A chill ran down my spine. This wasn't the Yusei Fudo I knew, this was the Yusei Fudo that had been buried beneath the surface. He was suffering and alone, harbouring feelings he couldn't share with anyone else. The mask he had been wearing cracked, falling apart in front of his face, damp from suppressed tears.

"_So why do they look at me as a friend?_ They don't bare any bad feelings and support me! _What am I supposed to do?_ How am I supposed to tell them I'm sorry?"

"Yusei…"

"_Answer me!_ Try to answer, Rudger!"

"So that's the darkness within your heart?" Rugger asked calmly.

_Dar- Darkness? In Yusei's heart?_ It couldn't be, but my eyes widened at the thought – every human had darkness in them, temptation that they had to fight to remain a decent person. Yusei wasn't a superhuman, he had mortal flaws, but I had never considered what his darkness was. Could Rudger be right? Was this guilt Yusei had been hiding his darkness? Why did he bring that up – was something going to happen to Yusei to influence that darkness? A shudder ran through my body again, Yusei simply glared at him, shrugging off the comment.

"_I'll answer that, Yusei!_"

Yusei and I both gasped at the sound of that voice, gazing down to find Crow standing on a lower level. Relief filled my hollow chest at his appearance, thankful that his soul hadn't been devoured by the demon glaring down at us, forgotten in the moment of gathering shadows. Yusei turned to face the red-headed friend as his stared up, his eyes narrow with guilt of his own – guilt of having not been able to understand his friend and be there for him as he wanted to.

"Crow…" Yusei whispered, taken aback by the sudden interjection of the boy. Like he hadn't wanted Crow to hear what he had said – insisting on hiding it for longer.

"Yusei, I didn't know that you'd been harbouring those feelings. I'm sorry…" Crow spoke with a solemn tone, something that one wouldn't expect from such a plucky character. The whole scene was like a foreign world to me, like I had drifted off during the ride to Old Momentum and woken in this world where people I knew acted differently. "Even though I'm your friend, I'd never noticed".

"Crow…"

"But Yusei. I've never thought that my life was ruined because of your or your father! That's why you don't have to feel responsible". Yusei gazed on as Crow spoke from his heart; a great distance separated them, meaning nothing as Crow spoke like he could stand just in front of his friend and press his hands down onto his shoulders to assure him. Something so moving from a place of despair that people believed was dangerous, somewhere people shrugged off as nothing. There were people suffering like these two all over – bearing a degree of despair that they had been scarred with. "If there was any fate for me, it was only having met you. Only having met you and Jack, and many other friends. Yusei, win! For our sakes too!"

"Crow…" Yusei's eyes flared dangerously when he turned Rudger, keeping Crow's words close to his heart. "Rudger! The one moving my heart isn't your light. It's my irreplaceable friends! And this duel, this is my final hope!" _Final?_ "Trap card open – Stardust Flash! During the turn that Stardust Dragon released itself, it Special Summons a Stardust Dragon from my Graveyard".

From the wondrous blue aura that rose from the card, Stardust appeared again, in all its glory, screeching in its unique way while glaring down at the opponent.

"Stardust Dragon is revived?" Rudger called, stunned by the play.

"Go, Stardust Dragon!" Yusei called, swinging his arm around. "_Shooting Sonic!"_"

The dragon shrieked again as it forced the glowing aura that replaced flames upwards, the beam of power, soaring towards the Jibakushin and collided with its underbelly. The divinity shuddered before the attack punctured its body and sparked a chain of failures in its body that result in a massive explosion. Beneath it, Rudger attempted feebly to defend himself from the gusts, descending to his knees as his second life slipped out of his hands, slumped in defeat.

By he was far from conceding defeat, he began to chuckle, stunning everyone opposite him.

"Don't' think that this is the end. Soon another ultimate God will be born" he warned with a smirk, ignoring the fact that his body was crumbling to grey gust.

"What?"

"Once all the four switches are controlled, the Meikai no Oh will be revived!"

The Dark Signer leader disconnected the Duel Disk from his metallic arm. Without taking his eyes from Yusei, he pulled a cord attached to it, causing a red light to glow near the top. His smug attitude towards his defeat and the manner of his words unnerved he – he was plotting something in his final moments on the Earth.

I stepped forward again, the soles of my shoes crossing onto the bridge. Whispers of the naïve Signer's name left my throat in cycles – Rudger was going to try one last time to kill Yusei!

"The Meikai no Oh, you say?" Yusei gasped in horror.

With those final words, he pulled on the robotic limb, extending it beyond its limits and tearing its apart. From his dissolving body, an explosion erupted, engulfing the bridge round him and ripping it to pieces. Automatically, I leapt back onto solid ground, but it wasn't me that I worried about. The horrific sounds from the explosion drowned out the scream that rose from my throat, no competition for the detonation and the bridge's collapse.

Yusei reached out for the rope of the bridge hanging beside him as he fell at a rapid speed, missing and descending helplessly. His fist clenched where he failed to grasp his final lifeline. The pit filled with his scream as his voice box roared with the sound, the coldest wave of fear and numbness drenched my body.

"_YUSEI!_"

He just fell, plummeting past Crow, the man who declared his feelings of friendship and undying trust to him, beginning him to win so they could all walk forward into a bight future together. So they could live like nothing had happened and he wouldn't have to support the guilty he had been for so long. He could move on with his life. Rudger's last suicidal act had ensured that would never happen, Crow just watched in horror as Yusei fell past him.

"_Yusei!_"

Plunging out of sight, Yusei sucked in the air – his final breath before Death would claim him through the opened door to the Underworld – and screamed again. Shrinking until he blended in with the debris scattered around him, the echo of his final sounds bounced off the walls of the crater. First Rua, now this. Was it _me_? Had Yusei just died because I looked up to him like a brother? Perhaps I was not meant to grow close to boys, maybe that was why Crow and Jack were still standing: I hadn't gown as close to them. But… I had made a dire mistake.

There was no sound, everything faded into silence. Flames licked the tattered ends of the bridge soundlessly. Ushio-san shuffled uncomfortably, Crow stared down in horror to the place where he could last tell his friend from the broken piece of the bridge. Time stopped, the world around me had ended, and I could feel nothing more than the sickening reality that Yusei was dead tearing my heart apart. My eyes widened, my heart sobbing. _No_… I- It can't be… Yusei can't be… Yusei can't-

_Rua…_

"_**YUSEI!**_"


	5. Hearted

**Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's - Breaking Point**

by Yusei

_**Summary - **__"She looked up at them, wanting to be like them, to be strong like them. Because they were strong; even when their hearts hurt. Slight Yusei x Ruka"  
__He does not wish for you to cry for he stands over your shoulder. But you cannot see him. Your eyes observe those you care for, they hold the strength you believe you do not possess. But their hearts ache in the same way yours does__."_

_**Disclaimer - **__I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's nor any of the characters._

_**A / N - **__Forgive the belated update, I was hoping to finish revising the previous four chapters before putting this up, but three is good enough for now. Honestly, this was written a long while ago and I simply forgot to upload it until I found it today. Hope this makes up for the long wait, and thanks for all the favourites and reviews, etc. Please read and review._

* * *

**Chapter Five - Half Hearted**

**Ruka's POV**

Swirling, glistening, glowing brilliantly. It looked so beautiful - that had been what I said before the energy rotating beneath snatched away another life. The power that had stripped hundreds, maybe even thousands, of their lives seventeen years ago – a disaster that occurred long before the beginning of my life. One that haunted Yusei, Jack and Crow, ripping their former lives from them, leaving them living in the middle of a wasteland without their birth parents. All this time, I hadn't thought about just how much Yusei had missed his parents – those people that brought him into this world, I thought he was too strong to let it affect him, but he had been hurt all along. He had been mourning them silently, alone, carrying the guilt that his father would have clutched onto had he been alive during this war – the guilt of MIDS. So much regret for one person, yet he insisted on carrying the burden alone, unable to apologize to his friends after they shocked him with their undying friendship. Even to those in the City, he had reached out and broken the barrier of discrimination… to an extent.

But that man was dead.

My brow twitched as I tried my best to suppress my agony, the urge to scream over and over, curse the Dark Signers for taking another life I cared so much about from me. Tears streamed down my face before I could fall to my knees, defeated. My body trembled when I couldn't hold down anything – I was useless… _again_.

"Ruka-chan".

Ushio was here, Crow was making his way to us. But what could we do? Could we help Jack and Aki-san overcome the last two Dark Signers? No… all we could do was stand by and watch, just as we had through Yusei's fall down to Hell. That had been what Rudger was saying – that the Momentum beneath was a gateway to Hell that he, his brother and Professor Fudo discovered seventeen years ago, he had been swearing that he would send Yusei into that brightness and to the Underworld, to the place where his father was resting. Thoughts of Yusei meeting a man without a face flowed through my mind – the father that Yusei had in this world, someone that none of us would have been able to recognize.

"_Yusei… Rua…_" I sobbed, feeling my arms shivering violently. Was there _nothing_ in this world that would survive this wretched war?

Non-Signer and Dark Signer, people from the past and present had been fading away, strolling into the Afterlife with a small window closing for them to crawl through once again. The only proof that we would have of those victims surviving was when people appeared in Satellite once again after Ccapac Apu fell, taking Kiryu with it. Maybe Rally and his friends were rematerializing somewhere, grateful that they had been released. So… why hadn't Rua awakened after Cusillu fell?

Maybe it was different when someone who was duelling lost. Maybe Rally and Rua were lost forever. Maybe Yusei was lost forever. The fatalities extended beyond darkness and neutrality – we were losing Signers now. Would Jack lose to the Hummingbird Jibakushin? Would Aki-san lose to Misty? Would everyone die at the hands of this Meikai no Oh that Rudger had spoken over moments before self-destructing? My hands tightened, shrinking into fists against the cold, hard floor, tears just as chilling colliding with the pale skin, smashing against the ground. It had been my fault… if I hadn't been so weak, I could have protected Rua, I could have supported Yusei.

Footfalls reverberated as Crow's ascent to us came to a close, the redhead thief clutched something in his right hand like his life depended on it, yet I couldn't bring myself to pay much attention. I would just let him down again if he were to request something using it. Ushio muttered something to him, the words drowned beneath my lack of concentration of the two, my eyes were simply fixed down on the swirling mass of malicious energy – the force that had powered Neo-Domino for years after the cost of thousands of lives I had taken for granted.

People whose deaths we were using everyday.

Crow moved forward again, standing over me. I only learned when he knelt beside him, laying a hand on my shoulder and bringing me back from the sight of a deadly rainbow ever so gently. Knowing what he wanted, I set my eyes on him, seeing his grief-stricken face – there was no wide grin, there was no happy-go-lucky aura – this was not the Crow that Yusei had spoken of, this man was far different from what we had heard and seen between battles against the Dark Signers. I could only empathise to an extent – Yusei hadn't been a life-long friend, but I had lost him as well – I had lost my twin brother like Crow had lost his close friend, people we could never imagine life without. And now we would have to, through experience.

Those we cared about; snatched away because another claimed that destiny foretold it.

Crow brought the object he clutched to me, pressing it against my hands. I gazed down at it, finding a frame in my hands and turning it over. A gasp escaped my lips while my eyes widened – in the photograph were three people; the man looking almost identical to Yusei, but with a darker tone in his skin and no sign of blonde highlights. By his side, a smaller woman with lush hazel hair smiled happily as she clutched a baby in her arms, the infant reaching out to his father – Yusei. These had been his parents. A droplet collided with one of the broken shards keeping the photograph in place. Realising that my eyes were leaking again, I rubbed the sleeve of my shirt against them. But it was no use.

My body descended forward, curling into a ball so that the end of my hairs brushed the filthy ground, dust lingering after years of neglect. The picture stayed by my side, pressed against my right hip as my hands gripped the fabric of my jacket, a wail slipped loose as tears streamed again – rivers flowing healthily as my agony resumed. To the side, Crow seemed unsurprised by the breakdown, leaning over and wrapping an arm around my back and guiding my side to his chest. He was rubbing my left shoulder… just like Yusei had been rubbing the back of my head when we clutched onto each other in Martha's orphanage.

Even then, I was useless.

"Cr- Crow… wh- what am I g- going to do?" The words came slowly, interrupted with each sharp intake of breath. My mind questioned whether he was able to understand the words that came from my mouth.

"What are you talking about?" he asked softly. "We're here. We'll find a way to get them back. You saw everyone come back after Yusei beat Kiryu".

"B- but Rua didn't c- come back once Demak was be- beaten" I attempted to proceed, scolding myself internally for failing to string together a sentence through the pain that he shared. He hadn't broken down and laid in a heap – he had been fighting for the youngsters that had been sucked up from the ambush that the Dark Signers had launched while we were away from Satellite. He had done his crying. He was strong enough to keep himself together and fight on. "It wasn't j- just me that lost Rua… wh- what about my p- parents?"

Crow's chin rested atop my head, he was gazing down at the Momentum just as I had been; it was like I could feel his eyes moving. Glaring hatefully at the magical energy, the one that had taken the friend he had convinced he didn't hold anything against – when Yusei shed his tears that had been waiting inside of him for years, Crow had been there to tell him that his guilt wasn't what he had convinced himself it was. Yusei pulled himself together and fought on. Just like everyone else. They had never grown up with parents; they had Martha standing the place of those that had been snatched before they could guide their offspring through the world. Crow had never felt the love his mother and father would have given to him in times of bonding and comfort, through thick and thin, the times they would support him and guide him in the right direction. Our parents were busy with their business trips; did they even know the situation in Neo-Domino and Satellite? That our homes were being plagued by the terrible conditions that were brought about by the summoning of the Jibakushin creatures? That people were vanishing, maybe never to be seen again. Would they ever see Rua again? To hold him in their arms and tell him how they loved him? Would our friends at Duel Academy get to tease him and play with him the way they had in the past?

He had never been the terrible duellist they saw – he was simply in the wrong mind at Duel Academy, learning to use different decks rather than the Deformer deck he had put together – his speciality. He wasn't one to change; he was good at what he was good at. Adjusting to the commands of another wasn't something he would do. Rua was independent, just like those from Satellite that we had seen. People who turned their back on the foundations laid for society to abide by, to keep a hollow peace over both sides of the Maintenance Pipeline.

Yusei. Jack. Crow. Kiryu. Martha. Rally.

They had all stood out against what others said. They fought for themselves and those they cared for. In memory of those they had lost.

So why couldn't I strengthen my resolve with Rua's sacrifice? He had done it for me and all I could do was cry over my loss.

"Hey, Ruka…" Crow's voice came. "I'm sure he's fine. Yusei will find someway to get out of there; he's never given up before. Then we'll meet up with Jack and this Izayoi. We'll get your brother back".

How could he be so sure? How could he be so optimistic? Rudger claimed that we were mere hours away from the revival of the Meikai no Oh if Jack and Aki-san couldn't seal the Towers of the creatures they faced. Those two terrifying monsters had appeared around the Arcadia Movement when Rua, Himuro-san and Jii-chan had been with us. Rua had failed to defeat Divine, pushed to his limits and beyond – he had been fighting for his freedom, but it seemed that that determination had not been enough in the face of Divine's Psychic monsters and the damage dealt to him through the equipment he had been hooked up to. He had been lured into that dreadful place because of me - because Divine used me as bait. That tower stood alone in streets torn apart by the emergence of two Jibakushin monsters, both yet to perish as four others had.

But Jack and Aki-san weren't the ones on my mind – what about Yusei? If the towers were sealed, would we cut him off from Earth forever? Would we be damning him to an eternity of misery in that nightmarish world? But we had no time for troublesome ultimatum, Yusei's duel with Kiryu had taken place shortly after midday, it wouldn't be long before the sun coloured the sky with its descent towards the horizon – we were on borrowed time. But why had we to make such a definite decision? Did we have to balance Yusei against the rest of the world with the inevitable "needs of many outweighs the needs of one" to damn him to eternal suffering?

If the Meikai no Oh was to rise, billions more would follow Yusei into the cynical abyss, doomed to suffer forever, no-one would be untouched by the tainted grasp Death would seize. Life would end; the world would collapse around us. Yusei was the man who everyone seemed to look to as the leader, what was a force with power without guidance? Jack was far stronger than Aki-san or I, he would be the one in control, but we couldn't even be sure that Yusei would be capable of standing up to whatever terrifying creature was waiting beneath the veil of swirling energy, the creature that had claimed him as its latest victim.

Yet Crow continued to hold his tears back, grasping the mask he had inherited from Yusei – we, those left alive from the ordeal in the bowels of the Earth's crust, remained in pieces, staring down like lost dogs waiting for their owner to grab their leads and guide them home. Only Ushio-san stood, bowing his head respectfully for the young D-Wheeler that he had once labelled "scum" and discriminated against severely. Through their forced alliance, they had grown close, maybe even bordering friends. Despite the protest he had sounded at Godwin's request for him to transport us to Satellite, he had been happy to take Yusei's lead and follow him wherever he led us – to the Whale geoglyph where Crow had been duelling Bommer, to the Giant Tower were Kiryu awaited, to Old Momentum where our tragedy had struck. Ours was not the only, but the latest in a very long list. A bereavement that had occurred many years after the other losses – seventeen years after he had lost his parents in the same incident. Crow's arm tightened around me, like he deduced that my mind had travelled back to the horrific event a number of years before I was born to this wretched world.

A world without hope as the light I had embraced previously diminished into nothing. Stolen by the darkness and evil. I prayed that this chain of sorrows would break apart and unlock the door to the future. A future without misery.

An idyllic world.

Was happiness too much to ask to maintain?

Perhaps that was our sacrifice to destiny? To put our hearts after the sake of the world – perchance that had been what the others had done. A skill I had yet to perfect.

But it still hurt.

Light glinted across the shards of glass fixed in place by the thick wooden frame of the peaceful family photo – a surviving remnant of the Fudo couple that bore that child who would grow into such a wonderful person. Secretly clutching the guilt and sorrow he inherited from them, insisting on bearing responsibility alone. I began to wonder what Yusei would have said if he had the opportunity to look at the image of his parents; happy, smiling, proud to be holding him. All unaware of the tragic future that lay ahead of them.

Carrying from one generation to the next.

Thinking of Yusei standing, alive, alone was enough to fill my eyes with tears of regret, of wishing that he could do so. That he could have a second chance and stand before us as a leader, ready to lead us to the next destination, be it Jack's duel or Aki-san's. Where would we go now? What would we do to mark the place where our leader fell?

From a distance, a voice called out – one without human words, just cries from another race. I opened my eyes and scanned the scene for Kuribon. There was nothing. Surrendering any hope, I allowed my head to fall against Crow's chest, resting within the protective circle he had forged. His hand continued to slide up and down, brushing the fabric of my shirt sleeve, knocking the shorter sleeve of my jacket up with each rise of his fingers.

"Crow?" I asked meekly, the name coming from my throat like I had only recently learned to talk.

"Hm?" he sounded.

"Do you think Yusei and Rua will meet up? Do you think they'll see Rudger or your parents?"

"I don't know".

"Crow… I'm sorry…"  
"What?"

"If it weren't for me, Yusei wouldn't have to fight so hard. He's fighting on my behalf because I'm weak. Just like Rua did".

"It's not your fault; it's the Dark Signers' fault. They gave into temptation and the promises that the Jibakushin made to them" Crow protested, tightening his fingers around my arm. "I'm sure that, while he didn't want to die, Yusei wouldn't have listened to those voices if they tried to get in his head".

"I'm sure he wouldn't have…" I mumbled, releasing a deep breath before resuming. "It's strange, isn't it? Rua and I met Yusei just before the Fortune Cup – that wasn't too long ago. Yet it feels like we've know each other much longer, like we're much closer than people should be after such short acquaintances".

Crow seemed to nod, or at least lower his head, lost amongst the thoughts that his mind swam through. Searching. Hoping. All in vain. He could say whatever optimistic story he wanted, but we all knew the reality – Yusei had fallen into the mouth of Hell, there was no hiding, there was no evading.

Everything felt surreal, like I had dreamt the whole thing and would wake with Rua jumping on the end of my bed. I prayed.

The full extent of reality still had to sink in.

Silence hung over my head between the cop and the convict, neither even glanced at the other. It wasn't that the air had become tense with those identities; simply, I couldn't break the soundlessness. We were… just waiting for Yusei.

The hand without responsibility for clutching the family photo of Yusei and his parents slipped into my pocket, pulling out a card – Power Tool Dragon. Behind the card, another clung on, the second layer drawing my attention. Guiding the piece from Power Tool, I drew the second card from the back of Rua's dragon, revealing the latest addition to my deck – Regulus. My brow creased sorrowfully, I had been able to save the world that Torunka and Regulus lived in with the other Duel Spirits, but I was powerless to save our own. What they were doing and thinking ran through my mind, wondering if they had seen everything we had seen.

Everyone was going to suffer. Suffer the same misfortune and ill-fate that each of the Dark Signers had experienced in their original lives, reborn as menaces who had sworn revenge on mankind – more specifically the Signers – for their tribulations. We had suffered because of them, even before they emerged from the bowels of Satellite to exact their vengeance, some as a result of Zero Reverse; others from something more, another factor out of our control.

* * *

From the whirlpool of Momentum beneath, a pillar of light suddenly arose in the blink of an eye, expanding to half of the radius of the crater. The sudden light forced Crow to rise and step back, Ushio-san also retreating. A cry escaped the both of them. Remaining on my knees, I gazed at the centre, eyes widened as the stream of tears began its cycle of evaporating and vanishing completely.

"What is this?" Ushio questioned. No-one had an answer for him.

In the centre of the light, a shadow formed, materialising into a three-dimensional figure. A body. _Yusei's body__!_ I could almost feel my pupils shrinking as my eyes grew wide with hope, maybe fate wasn't toying with us in this one moment, maybe he had been returned to us, able to escape Hell. His hair and jacket waved gently amongst a gentle breeze that kept him afloat until the light faded and somehow, gravity's hold on him became severely weakened, guiding him over us gently. Like the ground's temperature had suddenly risen, my legs left it as I leapt up to my feet, adrenaline pumping through my body as excitement ran through me, the prospect that there could be hope in the future, that Rudger's sin had been wiped clean and Yusei returned as a whole.

"Yusei!"

His body hovered above Crow and Ushio whose arms opened up, ready to catch him. As he descended, we could see his peaceful expression, like he remained dead. A chill slid down my spine – what if fate had only returned Yusei's corpse? What if it had risen our hopes for a moment only to smash them just as quickly? As Yusei hung a short distance above Crow and Ushio-san's arms, the force keeping his descent from a normal rate vanished, allowing him to drop into the arms of the two, his legs in Ushio-san's hands and Crow's beneath his back. The two took a moment, gazing at the body in their grasp, confusion spread across their faces rather than relief, unsure what to feel in the surreal moment. Together, they descended to their knees, laying Yusei on his back. He made no sound, my brow creased while Ushio stood.

"Is he… alive?" I asked meekly, terrified of the thought that he could be without his soul.

Crow kept his hand by Yusei's face, keeping his fingers close to Yusei's mouth and nose. He smiled after a moment, turning to the two of us with his hopeful glint in his eyes.

"He's breathing".

A grateful sigh passed through my lips, I didn't care anymore about taking deeper breaths to calm myself; what mattered was that one disaster had been averted. Maybe there was hope for Rua. Just maybe…

"Yusei, get a hold of yourself!" Crow cried.

"Yusei!" I added.

His peaceful expression twitched, screwing up as he crawled back to the surface, grasping consciousness and coming back to us. His eyes opened; a sight of massive relief to the three of us, each gasping with joy that our worst fears had been proven incorrect. He looked dazed; staring at us with his eyes half-open like everything had yet to come into focus.

"Have I… returned?" he asked quietly.

Slowly, he pushed himself up, sitting in front of us and closing his eyes as he worked on pulling himself together, to understand just how he had come back. Maybe he had seen someone in Hell that had granted him a way back to the world of the living.

"You seem fine" Crow commented cheerfully.

"Yeah".

"But how did you…" Ushio mumbled, trailing off when he assessed the situation, seemingly concluding with the outcome that Yusei wouldn't know. We couldn't expect an answer out of him, the experience had been draining for us; we could only imagine how tiring it had been for him.

His eyes opened again, smiling contently at the three of us. And at the same time, his face bore an apology, like he felt responsible for being unable to escape Rudger's trap, for descending into the Underworld. Apologising for things way out of his control again.

"Everyone… it looks like I've worried you" he spoke, the volume of his voice barely above a whisper.

"Yusei, I know this isn't the time to be saying this but we can't waste any time" Crow replied, his gratitude to forces out of our control hardening as reality washed over him. We were still in a dire situation, with time running against us.

"Yeah" Yusei replied with a nod. That was when his eyes turned to me. Tears slipped from my eyes, overcome by the relief that Yusei has escaped the ordeal unharmed. He looked confused by the combination of my smile and tears as they trickled down to my chin. "Ruka?"

"Yusei… thank goodness" I breathed, leaning forward and wrapping my arms around his neck. "I thought we really lost you".

He didn't respond immediately, but his hand rose to the back of my head, just as it had when we stood in Martha's orphanage, the place where he had grown up and shed his own tears as a child. I know it wasn't the right time, what with time against us as Crow said. But in that moment, my emotions overcame me, like the way Rua would cry if he lost a duel. Hope finally shone through the veil of clouds that hindered any sunlight to touch the surface of Satellite. I pressed my eyelids against Yusei's shoulder, letting them soak into the fabric of his jacket rather than completing their excursion to the base of my head.

There was something to fight for. The future wasn't shrouded in the foggy cloud that had claimed Satellite. There was hope ahead. Maybe a future for Rua. Just maybe… we could live again. I sob escaped my tightened throat and into Yusei, the photograph hung from my hand, forgotten.


	6. Signer

**Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's - Breaking Point**

by Yusei

_**Summary - **__"She looked up at them, wanting to be like them, to be strong like them. Because they were strong; even when their hearts hurt. Slight Yusei x Ruka"  
__He does not wish for you to cry for he stands over your shoulder. But you cannot see him. Your eyes observe those you care for, they hold the strength you believe you do not possess. But their hearts ache in the same way yours does__."_

_**Disclaimer - **__I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's nor any of the characters._

_**A / N - **__Did you really think that this was done? Not quite, but this is the final chapter, something that came about long after I said that there would be five chapters, sort of like an epilogue. I'd like to thank everyone who's read this, more so to those who have reviewed, favourited it and the like. Hope this wraps everything up nicely. Please read and review._

* * *

**Ruka's POV**

We shared everything. Parents. Appearances. Lives. I couldn't go on without him.

Tears slipped from the corners of my eyes as they closed completely, shutting out the true world – the reality that I couldn't grasp Rua's hand as I wished. Through that darkness, I could see it all again. Rua lying in my arms, why had I been too late to rescue him? _Why?_ He had been smiling at me in that same loving way he always had, like a lighthouse in a terrible storm, this curse that was the Signer War we had been dragged into. Why had he come with us? I wished for him to be there, to hold my hand when I was scared, when I felt too weak to fight on. My selfish desire to cling onto him for strength had cost him his life and he didn't care. That boy I called my idiot brother was more intelligent than I, he could still see a silver lining in his parting. Even as his body faded to grey, the cerulean hair that matched mine growing dark, colourless; those golden eyes I found myself staring into every time we met were no longer shining.

"Rua!"

"Ruka… fight on… I believe you can win. I'll be waiting for you… whether it is at the end of this dark tunnel, standing in the light… or when your life is lived completely and we stand opposite each other at the entrance to the Afterlife. I promise you, this isn't the end… we'll always be together".

Those words tore at my heart. I couldn't live a full life without him; he was a part of me. His voice sounded dry, like he was desperate for water, to live. The thirst for life he had always possessed had evaporated before my eyes. My grip on his right arm tightened, he wouldn't die; he wouldn't! _This was Rua!_ Rua could never give up like this.

"Don't say such stupid things!" I protested, tears streaming down my face as though I would never cry again. This was my ultimate nightmare, this was what _I_ was scared of, Rua wasn't just facing the Dark Signer that had selected me for prey; he was facing Death to avoid me facing that eternal blackness.

"_Ruka…_" His voice was no more than a whisper, a distant whisper that echoed against the walls of my mind. "_I love you…_"

His eyes didn't close as his body began to crumble, his body dissolving into nothing more than the dust that mother would sweep away, muttering irritably about. No matter how many times I cried his name, it didn't stop, I was losing him. Forever. His vanishing form drowned in the tears that distorted my vision, my throat tightening from the overwhelming despair that tore my heart from me, dragging it from this world with Rua. My beloved brother who I had teased and moaned at every day, wishing he would grow up. There was nothing more that I wanted than Rua. _My_ Rua. The Rua I had always known and loved, even without understanding it.

Even when there was nothing left in my open arms, I continued to sob, pleading for him to stay, repeating his name hopelessly. What would mother and father think? What would they say?

"Rua… I love you…"

The clicking of stones crashing against the ground filled the silence outside of my sphere of desolation. I didn't care, I couldn't care anymore. Demak could destroy me as he had destroyed Rua. The others could win without me; all I did was hold people back, just as Rua confessed he had felt at Godwin's mansion. Without Rua… there was nothing, this world was incomplete and held no place for me. Arms came around me, a gentle pressure against my back.

I turned to face the captor, finding Yusei who looked down at me sorrowfully. Rua was like a younger brother to him, we were the siblings he never experienced in this cold, lonely world. This world that I detested, that had torn Rua and I apart after so long. I had never been able to consider a life without my brother; we were going to be together until the day we died… together. Just as we had entered this forsaken place. Yusei's eyes remained dry, but I knew that beneath those eyes, he was crying. He was praying that Rua could be revived through the Signers' victory.

But I couldn't fight, I was tired of fighting. I couldn't even help Ancient Fairy Dragon, I couldn't even help Rua. Yusei, Jack, Aki-san, they all had their reasons for fighting and could stand opposite their enemies – be they friend or foe in the past – and use the light of their Birthmarks to guide them along those paths, to stand by their dragons and fulfil that eternal promise. I couldn't even look at Power Tool Dragon, ashamed to hold the card that Rua had left behind to lead me to Ancient Fairy Dragon, past Cusillu the Monkey Jibakushin; I wasn't strong, especially without him.

"Ruka…"

Yusei's voice sounded so whole, like he couldn't find how he felt – lost within his heart scarred from his previous losses; his mother, his father, his former life, his friend used as a pawn whom he found himself standing opposite in the battlefield of this wretched war. This war that had hurt everyone, taken someone that we all cared about so deeply. Why did we have to suffer? Why did others have to die just for meaning something to us? I turned my back on Demak, on where Rua had vanished in my eyes and buried my face into Yusei's shoulder, sobbing like a child. Sobbing in a way that Rua wanted to each time he lost a duel, when he couldn't prove his worth to his opponent – he wasn't acting like a child, he was just disappointed in himself. And it had been only now that I could see it.

My cries were muffled by Yusei's jacket; his hand touched the back of my head delicately, allowing me to press harder, tears seeping onto the jacket that concealed his arms. I reached up, grasping a small tuff of his hair, clenching my fist as I found myself unable to find a light in this fight anymore, the light that Rua promised he would be standing before at the end. Yusei seemed unfazed by the grab, instead, he stroked the back of my head like I were a pet he adored, one that he was unwilling to let go. The world around us meant nothing, the others would just watch on – Ushio-san and the distant Jack, Mikage-san and Aki-san. Our allies, those that had strolled into this war whether they possessed a Birthmark or not. Those like Rua… willing to lay their lives on the line.

"Rua… forgive me".

I didn't notice the change in Yusei's expression, his eyes that watched the crumbled ground narrowed, his expression screwing up as though he were in terrible pain. Demak watched from the place he stood, neither of us paid him any attention and grieved. Grieved for our lost beacon. The arms that locked me in the embrace, his reaching out to me, tightened – Yusei had found his sorrow in losing Rua, the horrible truth had sunken into him. Regardless of how many seconds into minutes had passed since my brother's passing, I continued to whisper his name, over and over. Praying he would answer me. Wake me from this nightmare. All he wanted to be was a hero. To be a saviour alongside Yusei, myself and the others. To be the Fifth Signer.

"_Rua…_"

**Epilogue - Half Signer  
Yusei's POV**

It was difficult to imagine there could be any light in the slimy body of the Meikai no Oh, but there was. Were these the lost souls twinkling like stars? It was like space, and we had been taken somewhere else in this vast universe. But where was Stardust… _Savior Star_? Was I alone here? All I knew was that the Crimson Dragon had taken Saviour Star as an avatar of its power and driven itself into the gaping mouth of the foul beast threatening all life on Earth. Had they made it out and I hadn't been strong enough to follow? Had I been left behind, a monument to the sins of the Dark Signers. My eyes moved to where five of them floated. I recognised them all, but Demak, as people from the living world. It was certainly a shock to learn that Carly whom I had met briefly was at the beginning of this whole thing was a Dark Signer. Though something told me she hadn't been one when we met, something must have happened to her since then.

In front of her, Kiryu was laying on his stomach, hands either side of his twisted head like he was asleep on his old tattered mattress. Opposite, Misty was the same, and behind them, Bommer and Demak were flat on their backs. They just drifted through the unfeeling air; I neither felt hot nor cold, like there was nothing at all. My eyes moved back to the Godwin brothers standing in front of me, both were how they appeared in their human lives; Rudger in his lab coat, naturally tanned skin and spiked blonde hair that made me think of Jack, and Godwin how I had always known him with the exception of his brief time the Condor Birthmark shone from his back. They were both smiling, gently. These were the men that had been working with my mother and father, but there was no sign of them. I wished…

That wasn't important. I needed to know what had happened, but Godwin had talked about how he was sorry everything had happened. His face turned to the five sleeping dead.

"Yusei… take care of them".

What did he mean by that? Were we all going to be trapped in here? Or… or did that mean they were going to be revived? It was possible? Hope swelled inside me – perhaps that was a secondary reason to entering the Hell ruler: to save those trapped inside, _including_ the Dark Signers. Kiryu could live again. Savior Star and I would carry them out while the Crimson Dragon destroyed its old nemesis, burying it for another 5000 years. Or, what we all would want, to destroy it for good. No-one wanted a third generation of Signers to suffer terribly, even if they won in the end.

The Godwin brothers were talking when I looked back to them, a sudden light opening up – a path to their eternal rest. Weren't they coming with us? Were they going to accept death as atonement for what they had done? Rudger ushered his brother, smiling, together they turned and walked towards the light. I didn't like what they had done, but no-one should die because of this war.

"_Wait!_"

But the light grew too bright and my eyes had to shut. They walked regardless, side by side, like a couple of twins. The brightness continued to grow, so much that it began to pierce through the veil of protection that my eyelids offered. And then suddenly, it was gone.

I opened my eyes, lowering my arm; it was just me and the Dark Signers. I turned to them, how was I supposed to get them all out before the Meikai no Oh died? There was just me – no D-Wheel, no Stardust, and no Crimson Dragon. A screech came from overhead and I looked up, Stardust was floating above me, having been waiting for the Godwin brothers to move on. It made me wonder if Rudger had been holding onto the Fifth Dragon all along and taken it with him, leaving Power Tool to serve as a replacement for longer.

"Stardust…"

It floated down until it hung where gravity seemed to pull us, but there was no guarantee. I had to test it, and jumped. The space was weightless, like gravity didn't exist. That explained how Demak could float higher than the other Dark Signers. Without any effort, I floated enough to reach Stardust's head, and laid my hand between its eyes. I smiled at it, not only once, but twice, it had transformed into a divine creature of salvation, carrying Kiryu here and then bringing me here to see it for myself. And if the Dark Signers could be reborn, perhaps Rua and Rally…

"Thank you, Stardust".

The dragon purred somewhat, its yellow eyes gleaming. I offered so much to it – somewhere in the past, I had been granted the card, and held onto it like my life depended on it. Then, when someone else's life depended on the card's fate, I had to abandon Stardust. I never forgave myself, but it turned the wheel of fate. And brought me to Neo-Domino, my birthplace, where my friends would all be waiting, where connecting the past and future was possible. Stardust revealed the Birthmark and pushed me forward when pain came endlessly.

"How will we get them out though?" I asked, looking over my shoulder at the five Dark Signers, freed from the blackness.

Stardust didn't move, but breathed again, like it could understand me. Maybe it could, who knew? I turned from Stardust and descended over the distance between us. In about half a minute, I was by Kiryu's side, on one knee, trying to figure out just what it was that I could do help him. To make up for when I couldn't help.

"Stardust" I called, standing up and looking over my shoulder again. "You can still be Savior Star, right? We can get them and ourselves out of here before the Meikai no Oh dies, can't we?"

Stardust's wings stretched and it glided elegantly across the empty air. Time seemed to slow down – did time even move here? – and Stardust came to a halt, towering over me. I couldn't tell if it had an answer, but I had to get them, and us, out of here before it was too late. Even if time didn't move, there had to be a reason the Crimson Dragon had separated, probably to deal with the Meikai no Oh to stop it from swallowing those of us inside of it. My eyes scanned the distant space, the stars glinting from so far away. Souls. I had an idea.

"Stardust, if you can, I need you to become Savior Star again" I said, looking back at the dead and laying my hand onto Kiryu's shoulder. "I need you to envelope us all, and guide all the other souls here out of this place. It's the only way anyone will survive. And… see if you can find Rua or Rally. I can't leave without them".

There was an ominous groan, all around, it was the Meikai no Oh. Something couldn't have been right if it was moaning like that. Were we running out of time? A bright glow fell around us; an aura around us of blues and greens and purples. I looked over my shoulder, Savior Star floated, expanding its aura beyond its body, it would move forward and capture us, but I had to get into my D-Wheel to make that so. My hand left Kiryu, and hung by my side as I moved towards the loyal D-Wheel I treasured; the only red amongst the brightness. I climbed in, there was no sign of my helmet, maybe it was somewhere else in Savior Star, but I didn't have time to worry about that – there was no air in here, after all.

Savior Star shrieked, and together we moved. Over the Dark Signers and left nothing; their bodies became orbs of light floating inside of the dragon, around me. We began to circle the inside universe, gathering more lights that followed like believers in freedom, I only prayed that Rua and Rally were amongst them, I believed they would be. Where the Godwin brothers had been, a portal of white opened up. We were out of time; the Crimson Dragon was beckoning us back to the living world. Savior Star turned towards it, leading the stream of lights. As we approached, my eyes closed; again, it was too bright to watch as it grew in strength.

There was an explosion around us, my eyes snapped open, I could see the purple clouds overhead; we were back. A scream, like a battle cry, erupted from me. The Crimson Dragon dispersed, leaving only Savior Star and I as we rose higher and away from the demon god. We were free, _everyone_ was free. The lights from the inside universe were gone, but they had followed us, I trusted them. Suddenly, Saviour Star turned, stretching its wings and legs as we gazed down at the slimy monstrosity.

It moaned again, looking towards the sky with its cold, blood red eyes before a tower of light shot out of its mouth. It grew wider, like something was being Synchro Summoned from inside of it. Something to tear it apart and make _it_ the sacrifice. The glow continued to stretch, tearing the beast apart and lighting the sky gold. Opposite us, the Condor geoglyph still glowed purple in the sky, without Godwin it had no power to sustain itself. _Godwin!_

"Godwin!"

They were still smiling, wherever they were. They had accepted their ends, to join my father in the places beyond Earth, Maybe now they could all find peace… together.

The Stairway to the Sky, as Godwin had called it, dissolved. It was no longer needed; we had won, apparently, forever. The geoglyph followed in succession. Then it dawned on me from a distance…_ Jack, Crow!_ They fell.

"Savior Star!"

We raced forward faster than ever. No-one would be lost now. Everyone would find their light; no-one would be a victim any longer. The speed and skill that Savior Star had inside of it amazed me, it was able to catch both Crow and Jack, with their D-Wheels, so gracefully. The gold separated, revealing its nature to be small blue stars that fell like snow. The souls we had rescued and more: those that couldn't get out in time. We soared over the others; each of them turned on their heels and followed us, towards the edge of Neo-Domino while we watched everywhere. City, Satellite, Daedalus, Daimon, B.A.D, Tops.

Savior Star shrieked once more as we moved in the direction of the sunrise, to the edge of the City.

* * *

When we descended over the others, each smiled with joy and relief – everything was over and everyone was free. People were waking up across the City and Satellite, released after varying times of imprisonment inside the darkness. Savior Star hovered a few yards over the ground, dropping Jack, Crow and I through its body. We landed in the D-Wheels we had used to defeat Godwin.

"Atlus-sama" Mikage-san cried with glee.

"You did it" Ushio smirked. "Thank goodness, it's over. I don't think I could handle any more Jibakushin incidents".

Savior Star was back in the sky, patrolling the morning light as it guided the remaining stars home. Ruka came to mind, she smiled numbly behind Aki, almost hiding behind her, Aki herself was pleased, smiling in a way I had never seen from her before.

"Yusei, those lights were people, right?" Aki asked, drawing my eyes.

"They were. The Dark Signers were among them" I replied. "They should be close by, Savior Star and I carried them out first".

"Misty…" she breathed happily.

Jack's eyes moved in the direction of Satellite, his hand pressed against his chest. He began to move forward, towards the edge of the land where waves gently crashed against the concrete.

"Jack?"

He didn't say anything, we all watched in silence. Whatever he had been hiding, he pulled from his Riding Suit, a pair of cracked spectacles. I knew them.

"I've seen those before" I mumbled. "Aren't those Carly's?"

Jack's head shot around, setting his left eye on me in the corner of his vision. "You knew her?"

"We met briefly".

"I see…" He looked again at Satellite. "Yes, they're hers. But she won't need these anymore. They're a reminder of the beast that controlled her. These were what saved us both, but it's a monument to that dark time. I don't want her to know what happened, only one thing…"

His gloved hand opened, the glasses fell. Beyond the concrete ground and into the water, drowning without resistance. Accepting. No-one knew what Jack meant by 'one thing', but something had happened between him and Carly, we could only guess. No-one would intrude; everyone was entitled to secrets and feelings.

"So the Dark Signers get another shot at life, huh?" Crow mumbled, smirking wildly. "That means Kiryu and Bommer will be back too. They can rebuild their lives".

He looked at me; it was true; they had both parted from this world with deception clouding their minds and misdirected fury burning within their hearts, maybe now they could keep the truth close to their hearts and resume the lives they had relinquished so long ago. Bommer was aware the children and people of his hometown were alive; Kiryu had admitted his darkness got the better of him. Maybe we could become close friends again, stand with the others like brothers of Satellite. Reunite Team Satisfaction.

There was nothing more I wanted them to rebuild the bridges burnt down by Security and restore order. As part of another team, we had achieved the latter goal; the first still had a long way to go. A breeze swept past, nobody complained, but we remained focused on Satellite. With Godwin dead, was his Daedalus finally going to be completed? Mikage was close to him, she could vouch for his word; maybe the people of two ends could finally become one and reunite. The survivors of Zero Reverse and the generation born afterwards, perhaps… the distant dream was coming to us.

"Yusei…"

That young voice drew me, Ruka's golden eyes shone in the morning light, but her face was still filled with fresh sorrow and grief. I knew what she wanted, but I hadn't been able to find him… did I fail? Were Rally and Rua truly lost? I guiltily moved towards her, falling to one knee in front of her and laying a hand onto her shoulder. Her eyes widened with superstition, maybe she had worked it out already, because they weren't here.

"Is Rua coming back?" she asked, voice tight with the strain to suppress her worst fears.

"I'm sure he is" I whispered. "I couldn't tell which light was his, but everyone still trapped must have been there. Only the Dark Signers could be told apart".

"But… why didn't he come back after Cusillu was beaten?" she cried out, tears filling her eyes. Her hands shot forward and clutched the edges of my jacket, the palms of her tiny hands bent fiercely. She was still scared… of losing the most important person. "Why didn't he come back? What if he's lost forever?"

Her face was far different from anything I had seen before; tears I had seen, but her voice was desperate, her lips pushed away from each other with great force. His absence had pushed her into the frame of mind where the worst-case scenario was truth.

"What if he's like your father and won't come back?" she sobbed. "Crow found the picture of you all when you were a baby, we can all see the face that disappeared, what if Rua's met the same fate?"

"My father died in Zero Reverse, Rua died through a fight with a Jibakushin" I answered as quickly as I could, stroking the top of her head. She was still traumatised after everything, until he was back, she wouldn't calm. I pressed her against my chest, letting tears stream down her face and take them from her once they fell. Over her hair, my eyes moved to Crow, who watched, dumbfounded. Of course, he had never met Rua. "You found a picture of us?"

Crow nodded and fished it out of his jacket, producing it in his right hand. I reached out and took it from him, his fingers didn't move until mine pressed down, then they retreated outside the private place. I brought the photograph close by, eyes narrowing when I traced each feature of my mother and father. I had seen him, but she had always been faceless. Now there was a permanent reminder that I had a family, that I had parents watching me from somewhere else. And although I tried not to allow it, tears began to fill my own eyes.

There had been no guarantee that those who lost duels would return, the Dark Signers had been protected by the real Rudger and Godwin, but had Rally and Rua? Would they be lost forever in the darkness, dragged down to Hell with the Meikai no Oh like my parents and those from Zero Reverse? Was that what Ruka had meant? Mentally, I shook – this was Ruka's distorted mind, not mine, I had to remain strong for her, positive for her. Optimistic like they had always been, those two boys who were so alike despite the distance between them.

Above Ruka, smiles began to return. I looked over her to see them across the faces of our friends; Ushio, Mikage-san, Aki, Crow, even Jack. I looked over my shoulder, eyes widening when I realised what was happening, why they were smiling. Standing there with a smile plastered on his face like nothing had happened, he stood there, hair waving in the morning breeze. It was like hope had been restored entirely, like there was nothing wrong with the world anymore. A tear slipped down from my right eye, one that hadn't retreated to safety, but leapt out into the world outside, seeking adventure. Just like him. My fingers pressed down harder against the front and back of the photograph in my hand, feeling the straight wooden back hold strong.

I looked back to her, to Ruka, whose eyes remained closed. Until her wish was granted, she would suffer. Alone. My empty hand fell to her shoulder, and gently, pushed her back slightly. Her face was drenched with tears of envy and isolation; she alone had been denied her loved one back. Her eyes shimmered with the combination of fresh tears yet to fall and the morning light.

"Ruka… Martha and I talked when we were at the orphanage" I mumbled. "She said that Rua gave you Power Tool Dragon as a reminder of him, you should treasure it. If you treasure it like I do this picture, then we can remember there are people who are always with us, even if we can't see them or they aren't alive. They existed, they still exist. Okay?"

"But Rua… I can't live through this world without him…" she sobbed. "He was everything to me… I'm nothing without him. He made me who I am…"

"Ruka, show me those two dragons. Yours and Rua's dragons".

She fished them out of her pink jacket, holding them for me to see; the glorious angelic being, trapped for 5000 years and what we assumed was a reincarnation of the Fifth Dragon, a replacement until it would appear, like how Rua had been standing with us like a replacement for the Fifth Signer. But now, Crow had stepped in, inheriting the Tail Birthmark when the Crimson Dragon passed to me the Head Birthmark corrupted long ago. I would take care of it, like I would take care of her. I took the cards from her hand, removing Stardust from the Graveyard of my Duel Disk and placing it the other side of Ancient Fairy. The three turned to face her.

"Power Tool isn't a Signer Dragon, but it fought regardless, because it wanted to help" I said, doing my best to explain things in terms of the dragons. Hopefully, it would work and make sense. "Power Tool wouldn't needlessly sacrifice itself; it fought while Ancient Fairy was breaking free of the prison that held her for so long. She grew stronger, and fought for him in the same way. Stardust could easily protect them both, remember its effect?"

"Victim Sanctuary?" she exhaled heavily.

"Yeah. But there doesn't need to be any more victims. Even if Power Tool can't protect Ancient Fairy and fight by her side, Stardust could always do so on his behalf" I continued. Did this make sense? Did she understand what I meant? Or was I just sounding stupid? "Black Rose and Red Demons will always be there, but Stardust can always be there, if you want. Power Tool can fight any time he wants. No-one can stop them or take life from them".

"What are you saying? That Power Tool is still going to fight?" Ruka asked, sucking in a deep breath as her body calmed.

I nodded, and began to stand, her eyes remained locked onto my face. "But it's not Power Tool who had a journey to take and return from".

She looked puzzled, I didn't blame her. She was so young; she avoided duelling when she feared it could take her away from Rua and to the Spirit World. After the last two experiences, I could see why. She didn't want to endanger him, drag him into something that he didn't need to be involved in and risk him. But he wanted to be there nevertheless. To protect her and let her know she wasn't alone. I stepped aside.

"You don't need to be alone Ruka" I added as I moved. "You're a sister before you're a Signer".

Ruka's eyes met the identical eyes of her brother, his cheerful smirk, hands against his hips. Her face sparkled as her body quivered, there was no ghost or spirit around. But the boy she treasured.

"Rua…"

He said nothing, but tilted his head; the hairs of his ponytail fell with the new angle.

"Rua…" she breathed. She threw herself forward, running. "_Rua!_"

Like nothing I had seen before, she ran to him, moving with strength that none of us had seen before until she crashed into her brother, sobbing against him. His arms moved upwards, and hands fell onto her back.

"I told you we'd meet again" he whispered into her ear.

"I thought I lost you forever!" she cried out. "I was so worried. I thought I'd never see you again!"

"So you _do_ care" he chuckled. "I don't know exactly what happened, but I think Cusillu passed me on to some leader".

"Wiraquchasca…" Aki murmured. "Godwin didn't like the idea of Rua hearing everything when he explained it all, maybe he was holding Rua so that we'd come and fight our hardest".

That must have been it. We all agreed to it. The sounds of the grateful reunion, the happiest in the City, filled the air. I turned to face Satellite, somewhere over there, Rally was waking up. He was back. Everyone was back. The current's breeze swept past again. Even without parents, I was still more than pleased by what we had recovered; one day, I would go back to Old Momentum and lay flowers for them. Them and all the others lost that day long ago. When Satellite and Neo-Domino were reunited; my father's experiment in the hands of a deluded man had separated them, but together with my friends, I had been able to achieve what had been started by another Godwin's hands. Reunited them.

I clutched the frame in my right hand tighter; Ruka and Rua had their other half back, Jack had his friend again, Aki and Misty had unleashed the truth, Crow and Kiryu could travel back in time and experience having old friends around them. Neo-Domino and Satellite could come together again, and the ruins of the past would grow into something new.

To be born into this world, to reunite it. To do something special and make such special friends. They themselves came before the secret ties of the Crimson Dragon Birthmarks. I wouldn't give them up for anything, not even for my parents to come back. It felt a horrible thing, but I knew they understood. I could see them above the waving water, smiling, proud that we had been able to close the gateway to Hell, even if it meant sealing them forever. Maybe they had been able to get through and moved onto Heaven. I hoped they could find peace wherever they were, and I would take care of Rua and Ruka like they cared for me. No matter what the cost, I would protect all my friends – and this new world born from hope.

**End**


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